Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Without a senior who had won a 10th Region game going into this year’s season, the odds of gaining a first-round bye and winning a 10th Region Championship seemed far-fetched.

Yet, led by a determined group, this year’s 2023 George Rogers Clark Lady Cardinals overcame expectations by winning that 10th Region Championship.

Unfortunately, as they say, all good things must end.

On Tuesday night, at Cardinal Stadium, the Lady Cards (11-7-3) fell to 9th Region Champion Notre Dame (20-3-2) 5-0, ending their season.

“It was a tough day, [but] they’re a really good team. They’re the best team that we’ve played all year long,” said GRC head coach Erica Hanson. “Every single one of their players can beat you. Every single one of them is dangerous.”

Confronting particular challenges that included starting center-back Anna Barnes being out due to injury, the Cards struggled early on as a relentless offensive attack by Notre Dame resulted in a 1-0 deficit after Riley Robertson scored with 34:08 remaining in the opening period.

Later, the Lady Pandas added to their lead via a goal by Ellie Heyob with 21:46 remaining in the second period.

For the next 21 minutes, the Lady Cards kept the Lady Pandas off the scoreboard to go into halftime with a 2-0 lead.

“I want to give credit to GRC. It’s a tough team, and they gave us all we wanted for sure,” said Notre Dame head coach Brian Woeste. “Every once in a while, a plan comes together. We knew we wanted to apply early pressure [and] try to get an early goal. When we did, I had a pretty good feeling.”

The Lady Cards tried to mount an offensive attack to open the second period.

Yet defense from the Lady Pandas limited the Lady Cards to just two shots on goal.

With 26:49 remaining, Robertson scored her second goal of the contest for a 3-0 advantage.

Outracing a pair of Lady Cardinal defenders, she scored her third goal with 16:35 left to give Notre Dame a 4-0 lead.

Although GRC junior goalkeeper Madeline Redmon would impressively block a shot late in the second period as Heyob tried to pick up a second goal one-on-one, a ricochet back to Heyob would allow her to pick up another goal with 7:04 remaining, resulting in the final 5-0 score.

Speaking with her team after the game, Hansen reminded the Lady Cards of the strength of their accomplishment.

“How excited, happy, proud, and grateful, and all the words and positive [feelings] that you [had] last week… don’t let those feelings escape you because of what happened today,” she said. “At the end of the day, you beat Campbell [County], and you beat Bishop [Brossart]. You beat great teams!”

Madison Stapleton was one of six seniors playing her final game in a Lady Cards uniform.

The others are Makhia Fountain, Lily Franklin, Sydney Herringshaw, Lily Roberts and Makili Tabor.

Scoring 13 goals in the regular season, Stapleton was essential to GRC’s postseason success as she scored in each district and region game.

Her sister, McKenzie, is a sophomore.

“I’m thankful that we made it to [the] state [tournament]. I [am grateful] for one last good season with my sister,” Stapleton said. “I’m proud. I feel like I had a huge responsibility.”

Junior Reese Patrick, who will return next season, spoke to the season’s accomplishments.

“I’m really grateful to be here,” Patrick said. “I’m just really glad that we pushed through [Regions] this year and…got the win. That was a really amazing experience.”

Tabor, also playing her last game, had a message for the Lady Cards’ players moving forward.

“Now they know that they can do it,” Tabor said. “It doesn’t have to be with us. They can do it on their own.”