Sept. 5, 2004
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Katie Thorlakson’s whirlwind start to the 2004 season breezed on to greater heights Sunday afternoon at Alumni Field, with the junior forward factoring into all five of her team’s goals for the second time in the young season as the second-ranked Notre Dame women’s soccer team used a late flurry to defeat No. 4 Santa Clara, 2-0, in the championship-deciding game of the Adidas Classic.
Notre Dame (4-0-0) started slowly at the offensive end but the Irish finished with a bang, scoring three times in a four-minute span just moments after Santa Clara (1-1-1) had forged a 2-2 tie in the game’s 81st minute.
The Irish finished with a 13-8 edge in total shots (10-4 in shots on goal) while the Broncos held a 6-3 margin in corner kicks. The impressive start by the Notre Dame defense now includes just 12 opponent shots on goal in four games played, with the Irish owning four more goals scored (16) than opponent shots on goal.
Santa Clara twice tied the game in the second half, only to see the Irish retake the lead in quick fashion on both occasions.
Thorlakson (Langley, B.C.) now has scored or assisted on all seven goals that Notre Dame has scored versus Santa Clara during the past two seasons (she set up a Mary Boland goal and then scored the late gamewinner in the 2-1 win at SCU last season).
SMU defeated Stanford in Sunday’s earlier game (2-1), cashing in its first two shots of the game while the Cardinal scored in the 89th minute (Stanford lost despite a 19-6 shot edge and 7-0 margin in corner kicks).
Quotes from the ND-SCU game follow below from Thorlakson, both head coaches and former Santa Clara great Brandi Chastain (who was in attendance and provided some thoughts on her fellow Olympic goal medalists and Notre Dame alums Kate Sobrero Markgraf and Shannon Boxx).
Thorlakson – an easy choice for the Adidas Classic offensive MVP award – registered the first hat trick of her career and added assists on the first and fourth Irish goals. It marks just the ninth time in the program’s storied history that a Notre Dame player has registered a hat trick versus a top-25 opponent – and the first since Jenny Heft scored all the goals in a 1998 win over 25th-ranked Wake Forest (3-0).
Just two previous Notre Dame players have risen to the big-game challenge by delivering a hat trick versus a top-10 team: Rosella Guerrero at 5th-ranked North Carolina State in the 1992 opener (the Irish still lost, 4-3) and Anne Makinen vs. No. 4 Connecticut in the 1997 BIG EAST championship game (6-1, at Rutgers).
Thorlakson also stands alone as the only Notre Dame player ever to rack up eight-plus points versus a top-25 opponent.
Her offensive fireworks are all the more noteworthy due to the fact that the 2004 Irish squad was looking to replace a pair of top goalscorers in the graduated Amy Warner and Amanda Guertin while coping with the absence of two freshman frontrunners who were prep All-Americans (Kerri Hanks is training with the U.S. Under-19 National Team while Susan Pinnick was injured in a team van accident with her club team). Yet another top rookie, Finnish national Jannica Tjeder, has not played since injuring her ankle in the opener vs. Baylor while senior leader Boland was injured in a collision with SCU’s Shari Summers (Boland’s status is TBA).
With all of the above frontrunners out of the picture, Thorlakson has taken it upon herself to factor into nearly every goal the Irish have scored this fall. She has five goals, six official assists and two other plays where she directly set up the goal but did not qualify for the official assists – meaning she had played a lead role in 13 of the team’s 16 goals (she did not even play the second half vs. Baylor, when two of the other three goals were scored, and also was taking a short breather when the late PK was scored vs. Stanford).
That all shakes out to 13 goals scored by the Irish this fall with Thorlakson on the field … and she has played a lead role in all 13 of them.
Just nine days ago, Thorlakson had become the first Notre Dame player ever to score or assist on the team’s first five goals in a game (with 2G-3A, in 7-2 win over Baylor) and the Canadian Under-19 National Team standout then duplicated the feat on Sunday versus the potent Broncos squad.
Her eight points versus Santa Clara are the most by an Irish player in six years and ended up one shy of the Notre Dame record, shared by 1996 teammates Jenny Streiffer (2G-5A, vs. Providence, Aug. 31) and Monica Gerardo (4G-1A vs. Seton Hall, Oct. 27). Notre Dame players have combined for just seven other eight-point games in the program’s 17-year history, with the last coming six seasons ago when Makinen had 3G-2A vs. Syracuse (Nov. 1, 1998).
Seven of Thorlakson’s eight points vs. SCU came in the second half (3G-1A), tying another Notre Dame record that she already had shared with two others (Thorlakson had her 2G-3A in the first half vs. Baylor).
There were just a handful of scoring chances during a hard-fought first half, with the Irish finally breaking through when Thorlakson served a free kick from the right corner. Sophomore midfielder Jen Buczkowski was in position at the near post and placed a header into the right side of the net for her third goal of the season (38:02).
Santa Clara forced the game’s first tie when Jordan Angeli’s rightside cross skipped through the box. The Irish failed to clear the ball and all-tournament performer Leslie Osborne was in position to poke the loose ball into the far left side of the net (63:39).
Just 90 seconds later, Thorlakson broke free into the right side of the box and was tackled hard to set up a penalty kick. She then sent a rising shot into the left side of the net for her third goal of the season and the 2-1 lead (65:19).
The Broncos made one last stand when Osborne sent a low, sharp cross from the left endline. Notre Dame `keeper Erika Bohn made a play on the ball but it squirted through her hands, with all-tournament performer Megan Kakadelas knocking home the deflection for another tie (80:59).
The Notre Dame answer came again, this time after just 2:03 had elapsed off the clock. Buczkowski clinched her all-tournament selection with a thru-ball for Thorlakson, who then drilled a crossing shot into the left side for the 3-2 lead (83:02).
Less than three minutes later, Thorlakson launched a cross from the right sideline and junior Annie Schefter made a slight redirection of the ball in the center of the box. Senior “suber-sub” Candace Chapman was waiting at the far post and rammed home her fourth goal of the season, despite playing just a handful of minutes as she returns from her 2003 knee injury (85:33).
The final tally came 68 seconds later, set up by a booming punt from Bohn. The ball bounced into the right side of the box and Thorlakson deftly chipped her shot over the charging `keeper Julie Ryder to complete the three-goal flurry (86:41) and give her classmate Bohn a rare goalkeeper assist.
Notre Dame’s all-tournament selections included Thorlakson (offensive MVP), fifth-year defender Melissa Tancredi (defensive MVP), Bohn (top goalkeeper) Buczkowski, sophomore defender Christie Shaner and sophomore defensive midfielder Jill Krivacek (full list below).
NOTES: In addition to Thorlakson’s effort on Sunday and Makinen’s 3G-2A vs. Syracuse in ’98, the other eight-point games in the program’s history include: Stacia Masters vs. Loyola (3G-2A, 12-0, 10/20/93), Michelle McCarthy vs. St. John’s (3G-2A, 9-0, 9/3/95), Gerardo’s four-goal game at Indiana (7-0, 9/7/95), Streiffer in the game where Gerardo also had nine points vs. Seton Hall (3G-2A, 10-0, 10/27/96), Cindy Daws vs. Villanova (3G-2A, 10-1, 11/3/96), Meotis Erikson vs. SHU (3G-2A, 7-1, 10/24/97) and Streiffer’s four-goal game at Georgetown (10/11/97) … the only previous ND players with seven points in a half (in addition to Thorlakson’s seven vs. Baylor) were Gerardo at Providence in 1998 (3G-1A, 1st half) and Tasha Strawbridge vs. Valparaiso in 1990 (3G-1A, 2nd half) … ND is 19-3-2 in all-time home tournament games and now leads the SCU series 6-3-0 … the Irish now are 202-3-1 all-time when scoring three-plus goals.
SANTA CLARA HEAD COACH JERRY SMITH – “(When a team answers your goal with a goal), it’s a real demoralizing thing. In soccer that’s pretty common and all of us in coaching call that a `big five’ moment. We talk about that with our team all the time. Good attacking will beat good defending any time. Notre Dame’s attacking right off kickoffs and in other parts of the game was just better than our defending. … (Thorlakson) is a player with international experience and she can raise her level to whatever level it needs to be. Good forwards can be quiet for periods of a game and then turn it up. I’m a coach that doesn’t emphasize the physical stature of a player. So I think Katie is an example of why you don’t have to be the biggest or the fastest. She has a nice combination of determination, grit and skillfulness. She has a great feel for the game. She reminds me of a player I used to watch in the `70s, he played for Germany – Gurd Muller. He was a very small forward but was very crafty and sneaky. If you research Gurd Muller, you will know that’s a huge compliment to Katie. She is a terrific player and we have a lot of respect for her … This always has a been a great match and today’s score did not reflect what was another great match. Both teams tried to attack and both teams, at the end of the season, are going to be a tough team for anyone to beat. You like to play these type of games early because these are the teams that will test you and we know exactly what we have to work on. If you have weakness and play a team like Notre Dame, they are going to show them to you and they showed us our weaknesses to day so now we go back to the drawing board.
Katie Thorlakson – “I like to win, so anything I can do to win I’ll do. … I always think that something has to change after the other team scores. You’ve got to pick up the intensity and go at them. … Today was a big showing of how good we can be and I just hope we keep building on that. … When I was in Japan (with the Canadian National Team, earlier this fall), my head coach told me, `Katie, sometimes you are just happy getting the ball on the net. And it hit me, so now I try to score and I’m not happy with just making plays. … In Japan, I played with the (Canadian) senior team for the first time and you realize how fast the game is and realize how much you can impact the game and you just have to go for it.”
NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH Randy Waldrum – “I told the kids that we have a target on our back because of who we are and the history of this program. The best example is you watch how Stanford and Santa Clara raised their games versus us than in their other games this weekend. … There’ no doubt that Katie is one of the best forwards in the country. She does it in big games and she played 90 minutes. She has the ability and composure to break games open. … You take a kid like Candace (Chapman) and I hope she keeps it going. She is on a roll and is finding goals in just a few minutes of play. What Katie and Candace are doing for us is huge. Other players like Maggie Manning and Ashley Jones came in and played well to show our depth and Amanda Cinalli has been great all year. … Our captains have done a great job with the leadership of the team but in general our group is older and the leadership extends to a wider group of players. … The Brazil trip made a big difference in developing our lineup and getting in the groove as a team. There’s a great benefit to that foreign trip and getting some games under your belt.
U.S. NATIONAL TEAM MEMBER BRANDI CHASTAIN – “I’ve always felt that (former ND All-American) Kate (Sobrero Markgraf) is one of the premier defenders in the world, strictly as a defender `1-v-1,’ I don’t feel that there is a player out there that can beat her on a regular basis. It’s a lot of things in combination besides her hard work and dedication to her position. It’s a lot about heart and technique. It’s about attention to detail and she just doesn’t want anyone to get behind her. She has been a continual source of consistency for our back line that at times had some sporadic play, but she was always of the highest quality
“I think (former ND midfielder) Shannon Boxx’s story is just about perseverance and being given an opportunity, what do you do with it? She never complained about not being out there (prior to 2003). I think she was ready to move on in her life but given the opportunity she took advantage of it. I always thought throughout college she was a consistent player. And playing with her in the WUSA, I thought she was a force that the other teams didn’t really focus enough on and I think in our system she is allowed to be the player she hopefully eventually will be, which is player that clogs up the middle with good defensive tackles, wins air balls and can set the attack in a counterattack situation. She is really the only one to blame for her success. … (Recognition as the world’s best defensive midfielder) is a compliment that she deserves. The women’s game is evolving and there aren’t too many (players like) Shannon Boxx out there. Perhaps she is redefining that position for the women’s game. I just think she is becoming a better all-around player and that position allows her to use her strengths.”
2004 Notre Dame Adidas Classic All-Tournament Team
Notre Dame -Katie Thorlakson (Jr., F; offensive MVP), Melissa Tancredi (Sr., D; defensive MVP), Erika Bohn (Jr., G; top goalkeeper award), Jen Buczkowski (So. M), Christie Shaner (So., D), Jill Krivacek (So., DM)
Santa Clara – Leslie Osborne (Sr., M), Megan Kakadelas (Sr., F)
SMU – Krystal Bailey (Fr., F) and Kimber Bailey (Fr., D)
Stanford – Jenny Farenbaugh (Jr., D/M/F)
#4 Santa Clara 0 2 – 2
#2 Notre Dame 1 4 – 5
ND 1. Jen Buczkowski 3 (Katie Thorlakson) 38:02; SCU 1. Leslie Osborne 3 (Jordan Angeli) 63:39; ND 2. Thorlakson 3 (PK) 65:19; SCU 2. Megan Kakadelas 2 (Osborne) 80:59; ND 3. Thorlakson 4 (Buczkowski) 83:02; ND 4. Candace Chapman 4 (Annie Schefter, Thorlakson) 85:33; ND 5. Thorlakson (Erika Bohn) 86:41.
Shots: SCU 4-4 – 8, ND 4-9 – 13.
Corner Kicks: SCU 1-5 – 6, ND 3-0 – 3.
Saves: SCU 5 (Julie Ryder), ND 2 (Erika Bohn).
Fouls: SCU 15, ND 13.
Yellow Cards: Thorlakson (ND) 8:34; Kakadelas (SCU) 73:54; Angeli (SCU) 81:13.
#13 Stanford 0 1 – 1
#23 SMU 2 0 – 2
SMU 1. Jill Heinemann 1 (-) 15:12; SMU 2. Krystal Bailey 1 (Heinemann) 23:28; STAN 1. Heidi Herick 1 (Jenny Farenbaugh, Amy Grady) 88:21.
Shots: STAN 6-13 – 19, SMU 6-0 – 6.
Corner Kicks: STAN 4-3 – 7, SMU 0-0 – 0.
Saves: STAN 1 (Nicole Barnhart), SMU 6 (Amanda Clark).
Fouls: STAN 14, SMU 11.
Offsides: STAN 3, SMU 1.
Yellow Cards: Marcie Ward (STAN) 51:50.