CAPE GIRARDEAU - The Sikeston girls soccer team was eliminated from district play with a 9-0 loss to top-seeded Notre Dame on Monday at Notre Dame High School.
Notre Dame jumped out to a 6-0 lead at the half and never looked back. The Lady Bulldogs out-shot Sikeston 32-to-11.
"They're a good program -- they have nine starting seniors and they've been there since they were sophomores," said Sikeston coach Derrick Long. "We just got bombarded. They scored three goals in the first 15 minutes and it's hard to come back from a deficit like that."
Notre Dame's Destiny Dirnberger scored three goals in the win. Amanda Dirnberger had two goals and two assists while Sierra Ellis had one goal and four assists.
Others that scored one goal were Merideth Medlin, Allison Essner and Rita Dirnberger. Megan Holloway and Claire Edwards each had one assist.
Sikeston's Audra Wooley had 23 saves.
"Almost every game this year we've been pretty competitive, so it's tough to end it with a blowout like that," said Long. "The effort was there and I thought the girls played with a lot of heart. We just came up short."
Sikeston ends its season at 4-14, but Long is optimistic about his team's future with several players returning for next year.
Sikeston loses five seniors.
"You always like to have a better record, but we started playing our best soccer towards the end of the year and that's always a plus," said Long. "It did hurt with Ali (Blurton) being out --
it seemed like we never got our scoring going this year. We had a lot of sophomores starting this year so we've got a lot coming back and we've got a real good group of freshmen coming in next year so they should compliment our team pretty good."
Notre Dame plays St. Vincent, who were 1-0 winners against Perryville, Wednesday night at 6 p.m. for the district championship.