By Don Ketchum

It was an effort of which Scot Bemis would have been proud.

The Scottsdale Notre Dame Prep girls’ soccer team, which Bemis coached before dying of cancer on Jan. 22, took a 2-1 double-overtime victory over Phoenix Thunderbird at Cave Creek Cactus Shadows in Wednesday’s (Feb. 1) first-round match of the Division II state tournament.

Kylee Bankofier’s goal from about 22 feet away in the middle of the field with 3:50 left in the second overtime gave the eighth-seeded Saints the victory. Thunderbird, the No. 9 seed, almost tied it with 55 seconds to go, but the last-gasp shot sailed just over the goal.

“We played hard,’’ said Notre Dame coach Gary Gregory, Bemis’ former assistant and close friend.

“Thunderbird is a darned good team. We hadn’t played them or seen them, and they played their hearts out.’’

Notre Dame, which finished as the Class 4A Division II runner-up last year under Bemis, advances to Saturday’s (Feb. 4) second round against Phoenix Greenway or Cave Creek Cactus Shadows.

It was Cactus Shadows that served as the opponent in Notre Dame’s first two games after Bemis’ death. The players were struggling, but elected to play after gathering for a chapel service.

The Saints had been trying to re-adjust to the presence of Maddie Reisdorf, their leading scorer from last season who injured a knee early this season. The team was out of sync for awhile, Gregory said, but is starting to play better now. Reisdorf played quite a few minutes on Wednesday.

Notre Dame’s Michelle Mahoney scored the first goal of the match after about the first 10 minutes. Thunderbird quickly answered about a minute and a half later on a goal by Ashley Johnson.

Back and forth it went after that, with each team getting its chances. Notre Dame had several attempts to take the lead barely miss, bouncing off the side post or the crossbar.

Notre Dame kept the pressure on, but Thunderbird held to force the overtimes.

Bemis will always be on the mind of Gregory and his players, “but you can play that (emotional) card only so many times. You have to go out and play as hard as you can and try to put some fun into it,’’ Gregory said.