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Irish Done In By Late Penalty Decision Against Michigan

NOTRE DAME, Ind. — Notre Dame fell to Michigan on Tuesday evening inside Alumni Stadium by a final score of 1-0. The Wolverines were awarded a penalty after a foul was given on the edge of the box in the 89th minute and converted to win the match.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Irish and Wolverines played to a scoreless draw through the opening 45 minutes of action. Notre Dame goalkeeper Duncan Turnbull kept the match scoreless with a diving save off a header in the 12th minute.

Notre Dame nearly scored the opener right before the half, as Patrick Coleman looked to pick out the far post with a shot but the Michigan keeper made an impressive stop to send the match into the half at 0-0.

The Irish came out of the break and were on the front foot for much of the second half, creating chances while also keeping possession. However, the Michigan goalkeeper produced a couple of big saves to keep the Wolverines in the match.

With the clock winding down in regulation, the Wolverines were awarded a penalty with 1:15 left in the match after the ref deemed a Notre Dame player fouled a Michigan forward inside the box. The visitors converted after a lengthy discussion between the main official and the linesman to uphold the decision.

The Irish poured forward in the final minute and had a golden opportunity to level the match and send it to overtime. Felicien Dumas sent a cross in with 30 seconds left and connected with Coleman, who chested the ball down and rocketed a shot off the arm of a Michigan defender in the area. However, the ref did not give the call for an attempt from the spot and Michigan escaped with a 1-0 win.

HEAD COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE

On the team’s performance…
“Obviously disappointed with the result. It was a chaotic last 90 seconds. I am not going to analyze it until I see it on video but some big decisions were made in the last 90 seconds. I thought we had a decent first half and were good for moments and Michigan was good for moments.

“In the second half we played really well for the most part. There are still a couple set pieces that we didn’t deal with well enough from their end but we created some really good chances where their keeper made some excellent saves to keep them in the game. Then, obviously, they got the penalty with around a minute left. Duncan actually read it well but didn’t get a hand to it. After that we chased the game well and thought we had a PK of our own but it didn’t get called.

“I think now we have to take the next couple of hours and deal with it and get back to work tomorrow morning as we prepare to go down to Wake Forest.”

UP NEXT

The Irish play their final road match of the regular season on Saturday evening, as the squad travels to North Carolina to face No. 2 Wake Forest at 7 p.m. ET. The match will air live on ACCNX and will be available to stream through the WatchESPN app.

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