Oct. 14, 2009
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – No. 19 Indiana used three second-half goals to top No. 22 Notre Dame, 3-0, in men’s soccer action on Wednesday night in front of 1,430 fans at Alumni Stadium. The loss snapped Notre Dame’s three-game win streak.
Indiana (7-4-1) got on the board in the 66th minute on an own goal. As the ball was being kicked around inside the 18-yard box, it deflected off of Fighting Irish right back Bilal Duckett (Peachtree City, Ga./McIntosh) and went into the right side of the netting.
The Hoosiers made it 2-0 in the 79th minute on a Darren Yeagle goal. After Notre Dame failed to clear the ball out of its end, Yeagle chipped a shot over Irish goalkeeper Andrew Quinn (Silver Spring, Md./DeMatha), who came off his line to try and secure the ball.
The final tally came in the 83rd minute on a score from Will Bruin as he took an Irish turnover and dribbled to the top of the 18-yard box and connected on a shot that sailed into the right side of the goal.
“I thought it was an even game in many ways, but we pretty much scored the first two goals for them and we helped them out on the third,” stated Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark. “It was three strange goals that we conceded. I can never remember conceding three goals like that in one game. You may concede one bad goal in a game, but to give up three like that is strange. The first goal was bad, but I felt like the second one is the one that really killed everything for us.”
Notre Dame (7-5-1) held a 5-3 edge in shots in the first half. Both teams finished the match with nine shots apiece. Quinn and his counterpart, Luis Soffner, both made three saves on the night. The Irish earned one more corner kick (6-5) than the Hoosiers.
Notre Dame’s best chance of the evening came in the opening 10 minutes of the second half as senior central defender John Schaefer (Troy, Mich./Detroit Jesuit) put a head on a Brendan King (Naperville, Ill./Edison Academic Center (Fla.)) cross from the left corner, yet Soffner made a leaping save.
Trailing 2-0 with just under 10 minutes left in the match, the Irish threatened again as senior forward Bright Dike (Edmond, Okla./Edmond North) sent a cross across the mouth of the goal from deep on the right side, yet a diving Jeb Brovsky (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain) could not get a touch on the ball. Dike and Brovsky both led the Irish with two shots apiece.
Notre Dame had another scoring opportunity in the 95th minute as a Steven Perry (Edmond, Okla./Bishop McGuinness) header off a corner kick went just wide of the near post. Less than two minutes later, Brovsky sent Notre Dame’s final shot over the crossbar.
“It was Indiana’s night tonight,” commented Clark. “To be fair, I felt we started the game well and had the better of the first half. I thought we never came out hungry in the second half like we had been doing in the past few games. I thought we never impressed our personality into the game in the second half and we never got going.”
Prior to tonight’s match, Notre Dame had not surrendered more than one goal in each of its past five matches. The Irish also were 5-0-1 when playing at night before the contest against the Hoosiers.
The Fighting Irish return to BIG EAST play with a home tilt against West Virginia on Saturday, Oct. 17. Game time is slated for 11:30 a.m. (ET). Admission to the match is a $1 donation to Grassroot Soccer, an international HIV/AIDS awareness and education organization that reaches youth in Africa through soccer clinics. Further donations are welcome.
Alumni Stadium • Notre Dame, Ind.
Oct. 14, 2009
#19 Indiana (7-4-1) 0 3 – 3
#22 Notre Dame (7-5-1) 0 0 – 0
IU: own goal 65:23; IU: Darren Yeagle (unassisted) 78:21; IU: Will Bruin (unassisted) 82:37
Shots: IU 3-6 – 9, ND 5-4 – 9
Corner Kicks: IU 4-1 – 5, ND 3-3 – 6
Saves: IU 3 (Luis Soffner – 90:00 – 0 ga – 3 svs – W); ND 4 (Andrew Quinn – 90:00 – 3 ga – 3 svs – L; 1 team save)
Fouls: IU 6, ND 4
Offsides: IU 0, ND 3