Bulldogs find enough offense to claim third

FENTON -- Notre Dame senior forward Brock Dirnberger was packing up his duffel bag at the conclusion of Saturday's Class 2 third-place game win against Pembroke Hill when he noticed coach Brad Wittenborn standing beside him.

"Sorry for ruining your perfect record at state," Dirnberger said to the Bulldogs' coach.

"You didn't," Wittenborn said. "My perfect record is coming up here and having fun."

Dirnberger and other Notre Dame players still were disappointed about Friday's semifinal loss to Helias, which ended their run at a third straight state title and forced them to play against Pembroke Hill for third place Saturday.

Still, Notre Dame players did not let the loss bother them on the field.

Notre Dame senior Trenton Vance, left, took on Pembroke Hill defender Will Patterson during Saturday's game.

They posted a 2-0 victory over Pembroke Hill at the Anheuser-Busch Center to earn a Class 2 state third-place finish. St. Dominic won the state title with a 2-1 win over Helias.

Notre Dame's third-place finish, however, actually did mark the end of Wittenborn's perfect record as a coach in final fours.

Wittenborn has led six teams -- two Notre Dame basketball squads (1986 and 1987) and four Bulldogs soccer teams (2002, 2006, 2007, 2008) -- to the final four. This year is the only trip that he returns from without a first-place trophy.

"Any loss is disappointing," Wittenborn said. "Believe it or not, I think I try to act maturely, but I'm as competitive a person as you'll ever find. So any loss I take very hard. But we're very blessed to come out and play a game and have fun like this. ... Win or lose, these guys that I'm with every day, whatever the scoreboard says, they are winners."

The Bulldogs' offense struggled against Helias on Friday, failing to score in two 40-minute halves and two 15-minute overtimes. It scored on just one of five penalty kicks during the decisive shootout that Helias won 2-1.

Pembroke Hill keeper Nick Gheorghita couldn't make the save on Notre Dame's first goal Saturday. The Bulldogs went on to win 2-0.

Notre Dame (23-5) played strong on the offensive end early against Pembroke Hill (11-14-1). The offense produced some early chances, including Dirnberger taking four shots in the first nine minutes of the contest. One of the shots clanked off the goalpost.

"Last night there were so many times we tried to forget about the game," Dirnberger said. "There's just moments when we sat back and realized we ruined the three-peat. We came out today and decided this wasn't for us anymore. This was for our fans sitting out in the freezing cold, for our parents sitting out in the freezing cold. All we wanted to do was end with a win. Not end it with a loss."

Despite Notre Dame having chances early, it still had trouble scoring. That was until Joe Froemdsorf sent in a corner kick that Joda Holloway headed past Pembroke Hill keeper Nick Gheorghita with 3 minutes, 14 seconds left in the first.

"We didn't get any yesterday, and today we had a lot of good chances in the first half and we had not found the back of the net," Holloway said. "Joe Froemdsorf just played a great ball across and I got my head on it and it found the back of the net."

Holloway said no overtime periods are played in third-place games, so his team knew it had to score in regulation to win.

"We knew we were going to have to finish the job in regulation," he said. "We didn't want to go out with a loss or a tie. We wanted to win this."

Notre Dame added an insurance goal when John Unterreiner scored after receiving a nice pass from Dirnberger with 11:42 remaining in the contest.

"I would have much rather been playing at 5 [in the title game]," Dirnberger said. "But I figured I had to make the best of my opportunities and go out there and play as hard as I could. We ended up winning, so I guess it works."

The Notre Dame offense took 19 shots with seven of them on goal.

Notre Dame senior goalie Ryan Bass made four saves to increase his school record to 46 career shutouts. The senior played a big role in the semifinal game. He made some crucial saves to keep his team alive before allowing two goals in the shootout, and also taking Notre Dame's fifth and final shot, which went wide.

Bass was Notre Dame's goalie during its two previous state championships, which came during his sophomore and junior seasons.

Bass said he enjoyed playing for Notre Dame after being on a wait list to be admitted into the school. He said he attended one day of classes at Jackson High School his freshman year before a spot at Notre Dame was offered to him.

"It was a lot of fun," Bass said when asked to sum up his Notre Dame career. "I'm glad I made the transition from Jackson."

About his team's play against Pembroke Hill, Bass added: "We came out more relaxed and we didn't press too much. I think some of it was nerves to go with yesterday's loss."