Tigers tame Dons

"We're used [to physical play]," said Notre Dame coach Dave Becker. "The WCAL plays like that."

Playing on the synthetic turf at Burlingame made the Tigers even faster, although Notre Dame forward Bunny Dickson isn't a big fan of the turf - it's too fast for the speedburner.

"Usually turf fields aren't my thing," said Dickson, who scored the Tigers' final two goals. She said she expends too much energy chasing down balls.

She had plenty of speed and energy to chase down a ball with seven minutes to play in the first half. After the Notre Dame defense cleared a ball from its end, midfielder Chioma Igwe collected a pass just outside her penalty box and ran right down the center of the field. Forty yards away from the Aragon goal, Igwe slipped a pass through the Aragon defensive line. Dickson, who may or may not have been offside, chased the ball down and poked it past hard-charging Aragon goalkeeper Kaitlin Revel to give the Tigers a 2-1 lead.

"That first goal was all running," Dickson. "Chioma gave me a great ball."

Five minutes into the second half, Dickson gave Notre Dame (19-1-3) a two-goal advantage. After another long Igwe run was stopped at the top of the box when she collided with an Aragon defender, Dickson collected the loose ball on the left side of the box and sent a low, bounding shot that slipped just inside the far right post for the score.

While Dickson was the scoring the goals, Igwe and Kate Berrini dominated play in the midfield for the Tigers. Igwe, the WCAL's Player of the Year, was hacked at all game long but not enough to prevent her

from gliding through the midfield making long runs and setting up great scoring opportunities.

"We did what we could. We tried to slow down Igwe," said Aragon coach Anthony Dimech. "We frustrated her a little bit, but not enough."

Notre Dame opened the scoring early, but Aragon (15-6-2) countered minutes later. In the sixth minute, Molly McBride gave the Tigers a 1-0 lead but the Dons responded three minutes later when Jessica Woo headed home a Shannon Smoot free kick.

Aragon had a chance to take the lead when freshman forward Kayla Revel earned a breakaway in the 27th minute. The Notre Dame backline misjudged the midfield stripe and Revel had a good 10 yards between her and the trailing defenders. She broke in on Notre Dame goalkeeper Hilary Waldo, who came off her line to cut down Revel's angle. Revel went around the fallen Waldo but her shot went wide. Minutes later, it was Dickson giving the Tigers the lead.

"We have to take advantage of our opportunities," Dimech said. "Once they got the second goal, that gave them a little life back."

No. 8 Live Oak 3,

No. 4 Carlmont 0

What an entire league could not do, one player from another league could as the Carlmont girls' soccer team was knocked out of the Central Coast Section Division I quarterfinals by Tri-County Athletic League champions Live Oak of Morgan Hill 3-0 Saturday.

The Scots dominated their division in the Peninsula Athletic League during the regular season, going a perfect 14-0 and finishing with an overall record of 19-1-0. But they found themselves unable to contain Live Oak junior Michelle McDonald. McDonald used speed and accurate shots three times to get past a defense which had allowed the fewest goals on record of any girls' team in recent PAL history.

Acorns goalkeeper Andrea Riolo, who was named keeper of the year in the TCAL, also shut down the normally potent Carlmont offense as she deflected nine shots by team captains Katie Herskovitz and Kelly Hillbun, star sophomore Mara Fintzi and others on her way to recording her 13th shutout of the year.

"This is horrible," said Carlmont head coach Jim Kelly after he consoled his girls. "We controlled the ball most of the game ... continually we were in their half of the field. We just couldn't catch a break."

Kelly told his team one game does not define a season and they always should remember they were one of the most successful PAL teams ever.

No. 3 Presentation 1,

No. 11 Burlingame 0

The Panthers, who played 107 minutes before pulling out a 2-1 overtime win in their Division II first round game, battled Presentation scoreless for much of regulation on Saturday.

In the end, however, a Burlingame mistake in the 76th minute resulted in the game's only goal, knocking Burlingame out of the tournament.

"It was an extremely up-tempo game. In the second half they pushed on us a little more and that cost us," said Burlingame girls' coach Philip DeRosa. "It was a pretty even game. The Presentation coach really commended our play."

Despite the loss, DeRosa could not have been more proud of his team.

"My kids played probably their best game and the team on the field was one of the best I've coached," DeRosa said. "We had a couple of opportunities but it wasn't our day."

Daily Journal correspondent Nino Marchetti contributed to this report.