You are here: Home » Featured Articles » GIRLS SOCCER: Timko-less Fighting Irish scrap to 1-1 draw with Mercy

GIRLS SOCCER: Timko-less Fighting Irish scrap to 1-1 draw with Mercy

Dan Stickradt | April 25, 2012 | Comments (0)

BY DAN STICKRADT

SENIOR EDITOR

Twitter: @LocalSportsFans

PONTIAC — Pontiac Notre Dame Prep was forced to play without its fallen star Tuesday night. The Fighting Irish still found a way to grind out a tie with Farmington Hills Mercy.

Despite controlling play throughout the second half, Notre Dame Prep settled for a 1-1 draw with the Marlins in an CHSL crossover game — all without the services of standout sophomore Taylor Timko.

Timko, who has 15 goals in the season’s first month, is out for a week after suffering a mild concussion Saturday against Ann Arbor Gabriel Richard.

“We’re a different team without her. She’s just one of those players that can finish,” noted Notre Dame Prep coach Jim Stachura. “We’ve got to sit her out for a couple of games because she got hit in the head on Saturday. We need to see what kind of team we are without her. We had our chances to win this game even with Taylor on the sidelines.”

Senior Ana Gomez tied the game in the 60^th minute of the second half for the Irish when she found the net on a direct free kick from just outside the penalty box.

“It was a really nice shot,” said Stachura. “And we had a few other chances down the stretch. We had our chances to win. I think with Taylor, we score four, maybe five goals against them. But I liked our effort tonight. We did a nice job, just couldn’t finish except for Ana’s shot.

“We were forced to play without a player that has scored most of our goals. She’s scored 15 of our 22 goals this season” continued Stachura. “That’s not easy to replace with only a couple of days to prepare, and we’ll get her back hopefully in a couple of games.”

Mercy held a 12-11 shots edge overall, although many of those shots were from a distance with the wind at the Marlins’ back in the first half.

After a 0-0 tie in the first half, Mercy grabbed a 1-0 leading the 45^th minute when Bridget Carlson’s shot deflected off the shoulder of a Notre Dame Prep player and barely squirted over the goal line during a goal-mouth scramble.

“I couldn’t tell if it was in, but I’m 75 yards away,” said Stachura. “Neither team reacted as if it was clearly in, but the linesman had the best view and said that it just crossed the line for a second.”

Megan Bricely made 11 saves in goal for Notre Dame Prep, while Allie Gorcyca had 10 saves in goal for Mercy.

“I am not complaining because we are still off to a very good start this season,” praised Stachura, whose team moved to 5-2-1 overall and is in the hunt for an CHSL AA Division championship with a 3-1-1 league record. “We put a lot of pressure on this team, and we’ve been doing that against everybody. I think once we get Taylor back and are at full strength, I think we can still compete for our division and make the Catholic League playoffs.

To submit information to www.northoaklandsports.com, e-mail dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com. To advertise, e-mail advertising@northoaklandsports.com . Follow us on Twitter @LocalSportsFans and more than a dozen other social media networks.

FOR MORE SOCCER COVERAGE: http://northoaklandsports.com/?s=soccer&x=0&y=0

 Have photos or video of this event that you wish to share? E-mail pertinent information to www.northoaklandsports.com Senior Editor Dan Stickradt at dan.stickradt@northoaklandsports.com or e-mail results@northoaklandsports.com