Irish answer in rout

Notre Dame coach Jim Schermerhorn didn't give his girls any rah-rah speeches at halftime of the Lady Irish's Class A/AA state soccer quarterfinal match against Dyersburg.

He just presented the problem and asked the girls to fix it, and Notre Dame responded by scoring three goals in a 1:56 span, turning a 1-0 lead into an eventual 6-0 victory.

"We just talked about the simple mistakes that were hurting us," Schermerhorn said of the halftime talk. "We just made the adjustment and picked up our intensity. In the first half, we were too slow to get there, too slow to support and weren't connecting on our passes.

"The second half was much better -- we played more like we normally play."

The Lady Irish (15-2-3) will face Greeneville, who had a 2-0 win over previously undefeated Page High School, in the semifinals today at 4:30.

"Watching them today, they're a decent team with speed at some positions," Schermerhorn said. "They work hard and they're pretty athletic, so it should be a good game."

Dyersburg played a defensive style, dropping as many as nine defenders back to stop the Notre Dame attack.

"They were in a very defensive formation," Schermerhorn said. "They had six defenders back all the time, so we had to push the ball out wider and try to cross through to create more chances.

"A lot of times, it's hard to play through when every time you look up, there are seven white shirts and there's nowhere to go. It took some adjusting, but the level of play wasn't where it needed to be, either."

Notre Dame dominated possession in the first half -- the Lady Trojans (15-3-1) only managed five trips across the midfield line -- but only held a 1-0 lead at the break, when Danielle Ciabattone knocked in the first of her two goals on a Brianna Avitabile corner kick.

"For whatever reason -- maybe we were nervous -- but it was a slow start," Schermerhorn said. "It was frustrating, so at halftime we talked over some things, then came out and did a much better job in the second half."

The Lady Irish completely took over the second half. Gaby Gurrola, Kathryn Healy and Ciabattone all scored goals between the 38:04 and 36:08 marks of the half.

Carey Leiper and Lacey Mahoney added goals later in the half, as the Lady Irish cruised to the victory.