Pontiac -- Notre Dame Prep senior midfielder Brooke Ingraham wasn’t going to let her chance of winning three consecutive Catholic League Championships slip away late in the second half.
After going back and forth between lead changes and tied scores, Ingraham and the Fighting Irish went on the attack.
“We needed possession of the ball,” Aurora Zinck, Notre Dame Prep head coach said, “and to keep it in our offensive end so we could just score when we wanted to instead of going back and forth down the field.”
Ingraham answered her coach’s call.
With 10:58 remaining in the second half, Ingraham drove to the net and scored to start a five unanswered goal streak for the Fighting Irish.
Just over a minute later, she sent a centering pass to senior attacker Leah Kalas for a goal and then, seconds later, stole the ball from a Ladywood attacker and passed the ball to junior midfielder Tia Jurkiw for another Fighting Irish score to put them up 17-14.
“We got it off the draw and had a lot of great assists, we worked hard and did our plays,” Ingraham said. “When it came down to it I took it to the net, I guess.”
Senior midfielder Stefanie Apruzzese added a goal with 8:04 remaining and Jurkiw scored again off of a pass from junior attacker Mary Eicher extending Notre Dame Preps lead to 19-14.
The Fighting Irish hung on to a 19-15 lead and completed the season sweep of Livonia Ladywood for their third consecutive Div. II Catholic League Championship.
“We worked so hard and this is always our big game and we’re big rivals with Ladywood and it means a lot to us to win for our third year, especially as a senior,” Ingraham said. “It’s a great way to leave the team.”
The Fighting Irish started the scoring in the opening minutes when Ingraham scored her first goal just 1:09 into the game. Ladywood responded two minutes later when junior Kylie Birney scored tying the game 1-1.
Notre Dame Prep scored two quick goals, but Ladywood responded with three of their own to put the Blazers up 4-3 and caused Zinck to call a timeout.
“During the timeout I was working on defensive strategies because we were having some issues on our defense, just telling them where to stand to stop the fast breaks and just to pump it up,” Zinck said. “Ladywood was really pumped up to start the game out.”
Out of the timeout, Notre Dame Prep rattled off three goals putting them back up 6-4. Ladywood quickly answered cutting the lead to 6-5, but only to go back down by two when Ingraham added her second of the game.
Ladywood cut the lead to one again when junior Emma Ellswood received a pass from junior Brittany Galvin, but the Fighting Irish were able to strike once more with :52 seconds left, ending the half with Notre Dame Prep up 8-6.
In the second half, Notre Dame Prep struck first when Jurkiw took the ball from out of bounds from her own 30-yard line and scored. The Blazers answered 49 seconds later with a goal from Alexandra Burns cutting the lead to 9-7.
The Fighting Irish and Blazers continued to trade goals until Notre Dame Prep was able to score the five unanswered goals late in the second half.
“The great thing is they stayed positive the entire game which is really hard to stay up when the game is going back and forth like that,” Zinch said. “But because they were positive and kept playing hard they were able to push through and win the game.”
Ingraham ended the game with five goals and two assists and Jurkiw added seven goals for Notre Dame Prep (12-3). Burns had six goals and Jacobs had four goals for the Blazers.
