Sept. 2, 2007
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GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Newcomer Elise Weber assisted on Brittany Bock’s early diving header and – following a long weather delay – scored the first goal of her young Irish career, as the second-ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team survived a physical battle with a Florida team ranked as high as seventh in the preseason polls. the at Pressly Stadium. The game started 22 minutes late due to an initial downpour and play then was halted at 2:28, following 30 minutes of action. Lightning strikes in the area and a steady downpour resulted in the long delay that ultimately lasted four-and-a-half hours, with the game resuming at 7:00.
Fellow Chicago-area natives Bock and Weber – who played one season of club soccer together with the Eclipse Select – showed good interplay by combining on a cross-field, give-and-go to open the scoring in the seventh minute. Bock initiated the sequence after chasing down a loose ball on the right side, in front of the Florida bench. She was able to maintain possession in the soggy sideline area and quickly reversed the field with a pass to Weber, who then sent a dipping cross into the penalty area. Bock was angling in from the right and dove low before connecting on the header from eight yards out, with the ball skipping inside the far-left post (6:28).
More than half of Bock’s career goals with the Irish (13 of 25) now have come on headers, in addition to four rare corner-kick assists during her career.
Notre Dame (1-0-1) checked back into its nearby hotel during the long weather delay before returning to Pressly Stadium a couple hours later. Weber – who started the game at left back – re-entered the game in the 60th minute, playing more in a flank midfielder role (as she did in the past two seasons at Wisconsin). Less than five minutes after checking back into the game, Weber found the back of the net for the key 2-0 cushion. Junior forward Kerri Hanks picked up the assist, after flaring a pass from the center of the field. Weber ran onto the ball near the right edge of the box before juking past a defender and surprising `keeper Katie Fraine with a sharply-struck rightfooted shot that ripped into the far-left corner of the net (64:28),
Florida (1-1-0) created plenty of havoc and offensive chances while displaying a good combination of athleticism and physical play. The Gators became only the second team in the past five seasons (spanning 105 games) to outshoot Notre Dame (11-4) but the Irish owned a 4-1 edge in shots on goal, with the only save credited to Lauren Karas coming on a harmless ball struck from 35 yards out. The hosts did not have a corner kick in the first 70 minutes of game time but went on to finish with a 6-2 edge in corners – with strong play all-around from Karas throughout the game helping Notre Dame post its 21st shutout over the course of the past two seasons (spanning 29 games).
The Irish now have posted 36 straight wins when scoring the game’s first goal and have not lost since 1991 when claiming a 2-0 lead, a streak that now has reached nearly 250 consecutive wins (248) when going up 2-0. Notre Dame also extended its regular-season unbeaten streak to 27 games (25-0-2), dating back to the middle of the 2005 season.
NOTES: – The Notre Dame travel party was set to grab a few hours of sleep at their Gainesville hotel before taking the two-hour bus trip to Orlando for a rescheduled flight early Monday morning … Bock has totaled a team-best seven gamewinning goals over the past two seasons … the Irish now are 25-1-0 in Sunday games during the past two seasons (95-7 scoring edge), with the only loss coming vs. UNC in the 2006 NCAA title game … the win was the 350th of Randy Waldrum’s career as a college soccer coach (combined men’s and women’s totals) … Waldrum edged ahead of Florida’s Becky Burleigh into third place on the list of top career win percentages among active Division I women’s soccer coaches (.773; 274-74-18) … the Irish now are 49-15-3 in the Waldrum era when facing a team ranked in the top-25 of the NSCAA coaches poll … senior F/M Amanda Cinalli and senior D/M Ashley Jones have appeared in all 81 games of their ND careers while helping the Irish compile a 73-5-3 record over the past four seasons … ND’s current fourth-year players are the nation’s winningest senior class for the 2007 season (their .920 career win pct. is just shy of the ND record of .921, set by the 1997 senior class that featured Kate Sobrero Markgraf and Holly Manthei) … Cinalli made her 70th career start in Sunday’s game … Hanks – who celebrated her 22nd birthday on Sunday – picked up her 38th career assist while moving closer to becoming the seventh all-time ND player with 40-plus goal and 40plus assists (50G-38A) … she now is tied with Michelle McCarthy for 12th on the ND career assists list, three behind Kate Fisher … Hanks remains 11th on the ND career points list (138), now four back of Rosella Guerrero … the Irish now are 11-1-1 in all-time games played in the state of Florida, with 10 straight wins in the Sunshine State.
#2 Notre Dame (1-0-1) 1 1 – 2
#7 Florida (1-1-0) 0 0 – 0
ND 1. Brittany Bock 1st of season/25th of career (Elise Weber) 6:28; ND 2. Weber 1st/9th (Kerri Hanks) 64:28
Shots: ND 2-2 – 4, FL 3-8 – 11
Corner Kicks: ND 1-1 – 2, FL 0-6 – 6
Saves: ND 1 (Lauren Karas), FL 2 (Katie Fraine)
Fouls: ND 15, FL 11
Offside: ND 3, FL 0
Yellow Cards: Amanda Clark (ND) 22:22; Hanks (ND) 82:19