SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The No. 21 Notre Dame men’s soccer team suffered its first defeat in ACC play on Saturday evening at Alumni Stadium, falling to SMU by a final score of 2-0. The Irish are now 5-2-2 on the season and 2-1-0 in ACC play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish and Mustangs played an even opening 45 minutes with both sides having long spells of possession but not creating anything more than half chances. The match was scoreless heading into the halftime break.
Notre Dame had a great look in the 50th minute, as a throw-in fell to the path of Alex Rosin, who lashed his volley just wide of the post.
Nine minutes later KK Baffour nearly scored the opener with a moment of brilliance. The midfielder found space at the edge of the box and curled his shot towards the far post but it glanced off the woodwork and stayed out.
However, despite the strong start to the second half from the Irish, it was the Mustangs who struck first against the run of play. Milton Lopez fired in a strike from just outside the box to put the visitors on top 1-0.
Notre Dame poured numbers forward over the last 25 minutes searching for the equalizer but the SMU defense held strong and limited the chances.
The Irish brought the goalkeeper up for a corner in the final minute of play and the Mustangs sprung a counter off the clearance ending with an empty net goal from Milton with 28 seconds remaining to make the final score 2-0.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the match…
“Obviously disappointed in the result. SMU is a quality team so that didn’t surprise us. They did a really good job with their gameplan. I’m disappointed with the first half performance. I thought we started the game pretty well and then I thought SMU was the better team in the first half.
“The guys came out of halftime and were a little bit more aggressive and our plan was causing some problems. I felt that just when we were starting to get our grip on the game they got the goal which opened up things a little bit more. Credit to SMU, they are a good team, but I think we could have done better tonight.”
UP NEXT
The Irish continue their homestand with a 7 p.m. ET match against Hope at Alumni Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 30. Admission to the match is free.
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