SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Mitch Ferguson turned in the performance of his Notre Dame career, scoring a first half hat trick to lead the No. 21 Fighting Irish to a 3-2 victory over Wright State on Tuesday evening at Alumni Stadium.
Notre Dame has now won four straight matches and improves to 5-1-2 on the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish wasted no time opening the scoring against the Raiders, finding the back of the net in the eighth minute off the first look at goal of the night. Luke Burton was brought down in the final third to set up a free kick. Ferguson perfectly placed his effort just inside the bottom right corner to put Notre Dame on top 1-0.
Twenty minutes later Notre Dame doubled its lead, again off the foot of Ferguson but this time from a corner. The senior redirected Alex Rosin’s shot into the roof of the net to make the score 2-0.
Less than five minutes later it was Ferguson again off a corner, completing his hat trick within 32 minutes of play. Nolan Spicer’s corner delivery was flicked on by Diego Ochoa, finding the feet of Ferguson at the back post who poked it in for his third of the evening.
The Irish took the three-goal lead into the halftime break, dominating in possession and shots (13-2).
Notre Dame kept the Raiders’ offense in check for the first 25 minutes of the second half but Wright State pulled on back in the 74th minute off a goal from Sammy Jadid.
The visitors continued to throw numbers forward and made it interesting in the 89th minute off a strike from Edwin Espinal-Elvir that took a deflection into the back of the net to make the final score 3-2.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the match…
“We are overall happy to get the result. Wright State is a good team. Obviously we built a good lead in the first half and played pretty well. Credit to Mitch for scoring a hat trick in the first half.
“Then the second half wasn’t all bad but we left some of our quality in the locker room and as we look back at it maybe want to do things a little differently. But at the same time I’m proud of the team. They stayed together, saw it out and got the result. Now we’ll take a hard look at it and learn from it.”
On Mitch Ferguson’s hat trick…
“Set pieces are obviously something we focus on a lot. He does a great job knowing his role and paying attention when Coach [Mike] Graczyk is going through it with them. It was great to see him score on a couple of corners and then the direct free kick is something that he has in his wheel housel”
On scoring from seven set pieces this season…
“It’s huge. If you look at most teams that have a positive record right now they are scoring on set pieces. It’s something that we want to do and continue to do.”
ND STAT OF THE MATCH
Ferguson became the first Fighting Irish center back to record a hat trick since current Dallas Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey accomplished the feat in a win over Virginia Tech on Sept. 9, 2016.
ND NOTES
- Notre Dame improves to 5-1-1 against Wright State in the all-time series
- The three goals tie a season high for the Fighting Irish during the 2025 campaign and the team has now scored nine over its last three outings
- Notre Dame has scored seven goals off set pieces this season, four from corners and three from free kicks.
- Ferguson’s hat trick is the first since Matthew Roou’s against Detroit Mercy
UP NEXT
The Irish will be back at Alumni Stadium this weekend, welcoming SMU to town for an ACC matchup at 7 p.m. ET on Saturday, Sept. 27. Admission to the match is free and it will be streamed on ACCNX.
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