Notre Dame Wins by Fingernail

With about an eighth of an inch to spare, Notre Dame High continued its historic girls’ soccer season.

On a perfectly placed free kick by midfielder Sarah Morgan, the Knights defeated Harvard-Westlake, 1-0, in the second round of the Southern Section Division III playoffs Tuesday at Notre Dame.

After a foul by Sara Chieffo with 11 minutes to play, Morgan drilled the 20-yard direct kick high off the fingertips of goalkeeper Ella Naef and the Knights were headed to the quarterfinals for the first time in school history.

“I couldn’t get it much better,” Morgan said of her 22nd goal. “I wouldn’t say it was luck, just a good hit in the perfect place.”

Naef, a 5-foot-8 senior, might have stopped the shot if she was slightly taller.

“She did a great job just getting at it,” Harvard-Westlake Coach Ned Smith said.

Before the game, Notre Dame maintenance workers pumped an estimated 300 gallons of water off the surface, beginning at 8 a.m. Sand from the long jump pit was dropped in the middle of the field, which was in reasonably good shape, but the sides had more mud than a monster-truck race.

Notre Dame (18-3-3) won both regular-season meetings between the Mission League teams, 2-1 and 2-0, with Morgan scoring both goals in the first game.

Notre Dame had the more sustained attack in the first half and more than doubled Harvard-Westlake in shots on goal, 7-3. Notre Dame had four first-half corner kicks, the Wolverines had none.

Harvard-Westlake (9-11-2) pumped up its offense in the second half, putting three shots on net in the first 10 minutes.

But Notre Dame weathered the attack, Morgan created a storm of her own and the Knights advanced to the quarterfinals, tentatively scheduled for Thursday, to play the winner of the Chaminade-Calabasas game today.

Chaminade, the division’s defending champion and top-seeded team, has defeated Notre Dame twice this season.

“Our goal was to win a league championship and we didn’t do that, but now we’re starting over,” said Notre Dame Coach Neezer McNab, whose Knights finished second to Chaminade and ahead of third-place Harvard-Westlake in league play.