Thomas hopes demanding schedule has QND girls soccer team primed for postseason success

QUINCY — Mark Thomas hopes a difficult regular season schedule has prepared his girls soccer team at Quincy Notre Dame for a potentially successful postseason run.

However, he knew that getting his team to forget Monday’s 5-0 loss to Pleasant Plains in the regular-season finale would still be difficult — especially when the Raiders and Cardinals had played to a scoreless tie with 11 minutes remaining in the game.

So he told them a story from his senior year in high school.

“When I was a senior, we lost 6-0 to Evanston,” Thomas said after his team’s 9-0 victory over Springfield Lutheran in the opening round of the Class 1A Quincy Notre Dame Regional at Advance Physical Therapy Field on Friday afternoon. “Evanston didn’t make it out of their sectional, and we went on to be state champions in a one-class system. 

“Nobody remembers that 6-0 game.”

Few likely will remember Friday’s rout of the Crusaders, which was shortened to one half of play because of an Illinois High School Association rule in which a nine-goal lead in girls soccer any time after the first half is like the 10-run rule in baseball or softball.

Addie Flesch scored twice, and Makayla Patton and Sierra Thomas both scored once in the game’s first 15 minutes as the Raiders spent most of the game peppering Lutheran goalkeeper Carma White with shots.

Patton scored two more goals less than 2 ½ minutes apart before Mark Thomas cleared his bench. Patton now has 20 goals this season and 93 in her career.

“I didn’t know anything about this team,” she said. “I knew that regionals, we usually get through pretty easily. Also seeing that they only had two subs, I knew that they would get tired quick, especially in this heat. So yeah, it was easier to play.”

It was a rare breather on a schedule that has challenged the Raiders (12-7-1) all season. Six of their seven losses have come against teams with a combined record of 90-13-2.

“Everything we do in our regular season is to prep you for the postseason,” Mark Thomas said. “Pleasant Plains, Peoria Notre Dame, Hannibal, those teams would be some of the higher-end teams in (Class) 1A.

“But our girls are very competitive, and they’re used to winning — not just in this sport but also basketball, volleyball and stuff like that. We have to go out and find good teams to play and prep us to see where we’re at. The goal is to get seven wins (to win a state championship).”

Patton, a senior captain, sees the benefit of a difficult schedule.

“As long as our team works, I really think that we can get over those hard games,” she said. “It’s going to help us a lot more in the postseason.

“I used to look at the record a lot more, but when Mark started coaching, I knew that we’d play harder teams. The record doesn’t matter as much, because we could play teams that had a great record but they were just bad teams. I always look at who they’ve played and see if we had played any of the same people.”

Freshman Leah Terwelp scored the Raiders’ final three goals. Sage Stratton and Ellison Barnes both had two assists, and Flesch, Abby Miller, Jamen Tchapda and Mia Vranjes all had one assist.

Next for Notre Dame, seeded second in its half of the Greenville Regional, is a regional championship game matchup at 5 p.m. Tuesday with third-seeded Hillsboro (8-9), which defeated North Mac 1-0 in Friday’s other regional semifinal at Advance Physical Therapy Field.

“If we work hard, we definitely can go to state as long as we keep our energy up throughout the postseason,” Patton said.