Bulldogs capture district

Exercising relentless pressure, it was just a matter of time before top-seeded Notre Dame cracked its district-final opponent.

And the Bulldogs finally pierced the St. Pius X defense with three second-half goals to gain a 3-0 win and fourth-straight Class 1A-3A, District 1 title at Harry Crisp Field Monday evening.

The Bulldogs, showing superior speed, precision passing and a smothering defense, dominated the first half with nine shots on goal to none for the Lancers. St. Pius, the second seed, was credited with only three shots the entire game.

"I thought we played pretty well in the first half, even though we didn't score," said Notre Dame coach Brad Wittenborn, perhaps understating his team's dominance.

St. Pius goalie Adam Baechle, whose team fell to 11-13, played a key role in keeping the Bulldogs off the board with several athletic saves among his halftime total of eight.

Toward the end of the first half, a scuffle between Notre Dame's Shane Kistner and St. Pius' Pat Bader resulted in both receiving red card ejections. So both squads played one player short for the remainder of the contest.

The Bulldogs (17-4-2), the state's second-ranked team in Class 1A-3A, kept the pressure on in the second half and broke the scoreless tie on Andy Arnzen's goal off an assist from Scott Wittenborn with about eight minutes gone.

Said senior forward Arnzen, "Scott made an unbelievable pass. We made eye contact right before he passed it and I just happened to hit it in."

Then with about 13 minutes left, Adam Pransanphanich came off the right wing, took a pass from Timmy Wencewicz and deposited an insurance goal into the lower left corner of the net just beyond the reach of the diving St. Pius goalkeeper.

Prasanphanich, with about three minutes to go, turned a beautiful one-on-one play into Notre Dame's third goal.

Prasanphanich, a junior forward, received a pass from Matt Pobst around midfield, beat a defender and dribbled the ball downfield to just inside the penalty box.

With only the goalie to beat, he stopped, juked and fired a rocket past the helpless goalie.

"You just go out there and you play hard and whenever you get a ball, you've got to do something with it and make it count," said Prasanphanich.

Notre Dame advances to the sectional round of the playoffs against the District 2 winner, which will be played at the Anheuser-Busch Soccer Park in Fenton Saturday at 6 p.m.

Old nemesis St. Mary's, the defending state 1A-3A champion, is the favorite in District 2 with a good Lutheran South team, also, in that bracket.

"Whoever it is, we're just happy to go and get to play another game," said (Brad)Wittenborn.

The Bulldogs had a breakthrough win this season, defeating St. Mary's for the first time ever, 1-0.

But Wittenborn doesn't take much from that win.

He said, "That was not an easy game, they're very good. I've got all the respect in the world for them. They've won the last several state titles and as far as I'm concerned they're the champion until someone proves they're not."