Aug. 25, 2017
by Tony Jones
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – A penalty kick strike from Felicien Dumas in the first half and a Jeff Farina converted header late in the contest bookended a dominant performance for the University of Notre Dame men’s soccer team on Friday night. The No. 10 Irish outshot visiting San Diego 17-2 to claim a 2-0 win in their opening game of the 2017 Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament at Alumni Stadium.
Notre Dame (1-0-0) held an 8-0 shots edge over San Diego (0-1-0) in the first 45 minutes, and did not yield an official shot against until the 74th minute. The Irish also claimed a 9-2 advantage in corner kicks during the game.
It was all Notre Dame dictating the run of play early, but quality shots were hard to come by for the Irish over the first 35 minutes. Farina found a great try in the 32nd minute, but San Diego goalkeeper Thomas Olsen was up to the task and turned the best early Irish look away.
Hard work from midfielder Kyle Dedrick in the 41st minute yielded the first Notre Dame goal of the 2017 season. Dedrick forced a deflection off the hand of a San Diego defender inside the 18-yard-box to earn Notre Dame a penalty kick. Dumas calmly stepped up to the penalty spot and buried his first career goal into the right corner of the net for the 1-0 Irish lead at 40:56.
San Diego finally found its first official shot after pressing forward for the equalizer as the second half wore on. A dangerous chance in the 82nd minute by the Toreros nearly clipped the underside of the left post and squared the contest, but continued over the crossbar and out of play.
With San Diego in a press for the tying goal, Notre Dame put the game away in the 84th minute. Pinpoint passing from Tommy McCabe to Dumas up the left wing found an airborne Farina all alone by the right post, and the senior forward drilled home a header for his seventh career goal and the 2-0 Irish victory at 83:55.
Notre Dame closes the 2017 Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament on Sunday at 2 p.m. (ET) against Cal Poly at Alumni Stadium. The Irish and Indiana are tied for the tournament lead with matching 1-0-0 records and a plus-two aggregate goal differential after the Hoosiers defeated Cal Poly 2-0 in the first game of the tournament on Friday.
Play of the Game
The first goal of his senior season for Jeff Farina brought the Alumni Stadium crowd to its feet. The Notre Dame forward broke free at the right post and headed a Felicien Dumas lob pass by way of Tommy McCabe into the back of the net for an insurance Irish goal and a 2-0 lead in the 84th minute.
Turning Point
The converted penalty kick by Dumas in the 41st minute was created thanks to strong pressure in front of the San Diego goal by Kyle Dedrick. Dedrick’s aggressive move to the front of the Toreros net helped Notre Dame break through with the run of play on its side.
Notre Dame Head Coach Bobby Clark
Response of the team in the season’s first game after a successful preseason…
“You’re always hoping you will play well because we haven’t really seen both of the teams coming in here (San Diego and Cal Poly). They’re kind of coming in unseen, but the thing was to play well and I thought we played superbly well in the first half. We connected our passes, we made some pretty good chances but didn’t take them, and got our goal on the penalty kick. It’s almost sad because the (next) shot went in, but I felt we could have got more out of it in the way of goals in the first half and it was 1-0. We let them hang around and they came out and went very direct, tried to knock everything in behind us, and that caused us some problems. It gave us something different to deal with, they stopped trying to pass their way through and tried to knock their way through. I thought the whole back line, Patrick Berneski, Matt Habrowski, Sean Dedrick and Felicien Dumas, the whole four in the back handled it pretty well.”
Note of the Game
Notre Dame scored a penalty kick goal in the season-opening match for the second straight year. Brandon Aubrey connected on a try from the spot in the 62nd minute of a 4-0 win over UC Irvine on Aug. 26, 2016.
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Tony Jones, athletics communications assistant director at the University of Notre Dame, has been part of the Fighting Irish athletics communications team since 2012 and coordinates all media efforts for the Notre Dame softball and men’s soccer programs. A native of Jamestown, New York, Jones is a 2011 graduate of St. Bonaventure University, and prior to arriving at Notre Dame held positions at the University of Louisiana Monroe and with the National Football League’s Buffalo Bills.