By Chris Faulkner
for The Beacon
Two champions from their respective conferences locked horns — and legs — Tuesday in a varsity girls soccer match at Harold Tackleson Field.
Host Notre Dame/West Burlington/Danville took a 2-0 lead into intermission against intracity rival Burlington High School. Then, Julianna Hill put the ball into the back of the net for the Nikes with less than two minutes gone in the second half, and the Nikes held on for a 3-1 victory.
It was the final regular season match for both schools, but it was also the 100th career victory for Notre Dame coach Todd Ackerman.
He has coached eight seasons, not counting the lost 2020 season due to COVID.
The Notre Dame senior and junior players presented Ackerman with a photo banner after the match.
On tonight (Friday, May 20), the Nikes and Grayhounds opened post-season play in the same Class 2A Region 8.
Notre Dame (8-7), which had slipped by Mount Pleasant 4-3 Monday, plays Central DeWitt (4-12) at 6 tonight at home in a Class 2A Region 8 contest.
The winner plays next Tuesday at 5 p.m. at North Scott, which drew a bye.
Burlington (10-5) hosts Clinton (3-9) in the bottom of that break at 6 p.m. Friday, with the winner playing Mount Vernon and Cornell University’s soccer field next Tuesday at 5 p.m.
Nikes dominate
match early
Notre Dame dominated the first 25 minutes or so of the first half with Burlington not getting the ball into the Nikes’ end of the field often.
Hill then broke the shutout with 10:15 left in the half, booting the ball over the Burlington keeper’s head.
Burlington finally got a chance at a scoring threat at the nine-minute mark, but a Grayhound was offside, nullifying a score.
Hadley Augustine of Notre Dame found the far left side of the net with 5:31 left in the first half and the 2-0 lead held up.
Hill’s shot with 38:11 left in the second half made for a difficult task for Burlington.
Notre Dame goalkeeper Ava Rashid, who finished with five saves on the night, had her biggest one at 35:10. She punched a Burlington player’s shot into the air and behind the net.
With 28 minutes left in the match, Jenna Hentzel finally got BHS on the board. Hunter Pender passed the ball to Hentzel inside the box, and Rashid came out for the stop. But Hentzel had a clear shot to cut the lead to 3-1.
The Grayhounds were unable to score again, and the Nikes won the match.
Notre Dame finished with 13 shots on goal, and Burlington had six.
Notre Dame had been on a four-game losing streak due to three strong out-of-state schools in the Adidas Tournament to the end of April.
Then came a nine-day layoff.
“We’ve been playing a little better with each game,” Ackerman said. “We started with a loss to Iowa City Regina,” he said of a 4-1 road defeat.
This past Monday, Notre Dame played better and led Mount Pleasant 4-1 before settling for a 4-3 victory.
“We kind of let them back in,” Ackerman said.
The girls had a strong regular-season finish.
“I think we dominated the game tonight,” Ackerman said of the Burlington contest.
“We played really well. We’re starting to pick up our stride a little bit.”
Ackerman said he was glad the team didn’t let Burlington back into the contest as it did with the Panthers.
“We had a little better control of the game,” he said. “I was very proud of the girls, coming out on Senior Night ... It was an emotional night.”
Off to the races: Burlington High School’s Sophie Brown (4) and Burlington Notre Dame senior Lexi Mears (3) chase the soccer ball downfield. The two local teams played in a varsity girls match Tuesday, with the Notre Dame/West Burlington/Danville team beating the Grayhounds 3-1. Photo by Chris Faulkner