ND gets healthy, wealthy – Senior comes back from injury to score in
JUSTIN PHELPS
MORTON – Kellington Boddie made his presence felt early in a Class A Morton Sectional semifinal.
The senior midfielder scored on a header at 11:42, and Notre Dame cruised to a 4-1 boys soccer victory Saturday over East Peoria at McClallen Park.
“That helped my confidence,” said Boddie, who made his first appearance in the ND lineup since he suffered an ankle injury Oct. 2. “It let the guys know I’m not going to just be a gimp out there.”
Notre Dame (19-2-2) advances to the sectional championship at 7 p.m. Tuesday against Dunlap in a rematch of last season’s title meeting won by the Irish. Dunlap beat Normal U-High 2-0 in the other semi.
Boddie, who estimates his ankle is at about 80 percent, soared over East Peoria defenders to head Rudy Garcia’s corner kick past goalkeeper Robert Jones.
“It’s good to have Kelly back,” said ND coach Peter Nash, who noted the Irish also have senior goalkeeper Adam Robertson and senior defender Brian Barnett back from injury.
“It’s a momentum boost to have everyone back,” Nash said. “We’re pretty much at full health looking to go into the sectional final as a complete team.”
Chase Corricelli registered his 24th goal of the season, at 18:13, and Garcia ripped a free kick 35 yards away and put it inside the right post past a diving Jones at 22:02 to give ND a 3-0 lead.
“I just saw an opening,” Garcia said. “Everybody was on the left side and the right side was open so I just hit it as hard as I could.”
John Myers made it 4-0 with a low shot in the penalty area through traffic at 58:02.
“We gave them four goals,” said East Peoria coach Jevan Muenzer, whose team finished 11-7-3. “We did what we did all year, shoot ourselves in the foot. It killed any momentum that we had.”
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