Mount Notre Dame seemed to be headed for another frustrating finish after seeing two shots hit the crossbar and a third an upright without touching nylon in the second half of Saturday’s soccer Division I regional final against Centerville.
The Cougars kept plugging away, maintaining withering second-half pressure against the Elks and finally being rewarded when junior forward Peyton Kohls scored on a left-footed 23-yard shot with 4:10 left in overtime to lift Mount Notre Dame to a 1-0 win and send them on their first-ever trip to a state semifinal.
“I was thinking of the seniors and the players who came before us and the players who will be coming in,” Kohls said after emerging from the dogpile of celebrating Cougars and posing for photos with her team and the regional championship award.
More:Here is the Cincinnati Enquirer's high school sports postseason coverage, Nov. 1-7
The undefeated Cougars (19-0-1), the No. 2 team in the final Ohio State Soccer Coaches Association Division I coaches poll, are scheduled to meet unranked New Albany on Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Bowlus Field in London. New Albany upset seventh-ranked Powell Olentangy Liberty, 2-1, on Saturday. The state final is scheduled for Friday at 7 p.m. at a site still to be determined.
The win represents another stepping stone for fourth-year Mount Notre Dame coach Kiersten Johnson, who’s guided her team to a 36-1-0 record over the last two seasons. The only loss was by 3-2 to Lakota West in last year’s tournament.
“We reached our first district final,” she said. “Then we had to rebuild a little bit. Last year, we had a perfect season until we lost to Lakota West.”
Mount Notre Dame logged its seventh straight shutout win and 15th overall, including a 1-0 regular-season win over Centerville in which Kohls scored the only goal. She leads the Cougars with 24 goals.
A problem with the lights caused a 23-minute delay at the start of Saturday’s match.
“You could say they played lights-out soccer,” someone said on the sideline late in the match.
The first half was evenly played with both teams pushing the ball into each other’s territory without being able to convert opportunities into goals. Centerville had the only first-half corner kick, senior forward Maddi Brandt forced Mount Notre Dame goalkeeper Allie Lammers into a leaping save on a 30-yard shot five minutes into the first half.
The Cougars ratcheted up their intensity after halftime and basically controlled the second half, keeping constant pressure. The Elks needed constant vigilance from senior goalkeeper Allison Colopy and got saves from junior defenders Molly Wiedemann and Charlotte Kunst to keep Mount Notre Dame off the scoreboard.
“They were able to win a lot of the 50-50 balls, which we said before the game was going to be a key,” Centerville coach Jim Gobrail said of the Cougars. “Our defense has been our hallmark all season.”
Said Johnson: “We told them to not worry about the other team and to focus on us. Peyton Kohls was a little upset going into the overtime. I told her to calm down and that I thought she would score the winning goal.”
Kohls was on the right wing when she retrieved a loose ball and dribbled a few yards before launching her shot that settled into the upper left-hand corner of the netting.
“My first instinct was just to get open,” she said. “I knew one goal was all we needed.”
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