SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Notre Dame opened the 2021 campaign at home at Alumni Stadium on Friday evening in front of a packed house, hosting No. 2 Indiana in a rivalry match. The Irish dropped a tough decision in overtime by a final score of 3-2.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish attack wasted little time opening the 2021 season, scoring in the 10th minute to take an early 1-0 lead. Tyler Shea found space down the right channel and whipped in a low cross, connecting with Dawson McCartney on a diving header that the Indiana keeper made a point-blank save on. Jack Lynn cleaned up the rebound, knocking the ball into the roof of the net to put Notre Dame on top 1-0.
Just six minutes later the Irish nearly doubled their lead, as Eno Nto created space and had his shot parried away. Matthew Roou’s attempted volley on the rebound went just over the bar to keep the Notre Dame lead to one.
The Hoosiers answered back in the 34th minute with a goal from Tommy Mihalic to even the scoreline at 1-1, which is what the score was heading into the halftime intermission.
Notre Dame came out of the break locked in, putting Indiana on the back foot for much of the final 45 minutes. McCartney put the Irish back on top in the 57th minute when he fired a loose ball in the box into the left of the goal to give Notre Dame the 2-1 lead.
The Irish looked to be headed to a season-opening win until they were whistled for a hand ball in the box in the 88th minute. Notre Dame goalkeeper Bryan Dowd saved the initial attempt but the Hoosiers scored on the rebound to level the match at 2-2 and send it to overtime.
In the third minute of overtime Indiana’s Ben Yeagley connected on a shot from outside the box that found the back of the net to give Indiana the victory.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the performance…
“Obviously disappointed with the result. It’s hard to play as well as we did and not get a positive result. I’m really proud of the group. I think the team played excellently tonight and it was a great performance overall but we just didn’t quite see it out to get the victory.”
On the quick turnaround to play Monday…
“One of the reasons we like to play Indiana early in the season is to get a good barometer of where we are and we know where we have some potential and where we need to work on. We’ll take what we learn from this game and put it into the game against NIU and we will be a very hungry group on Monday.”
On the fans and environment…
“I thought the crowd was awesome. The fans were fantastic. When you have great performances like that, a lot of it has to do with the great turnout from the Notre Dame fans, I can’t thank them enough for coming out.”
NOTRE DAME STAT OF THE MATCH
The Irish outshot the Hoosiers 16-10 (6-4 on goal) and had an 8-1 advantage in corners in the match.
NOTES
- Lynn scored his 22nd career goal for the Irish and has now scored in two of the four season openers.
- McCartney’s goal was his second at Notre Dame and 10th of his collegiate career.
- Josh Ramsey earned the first start of his career, starting at center back as a freshman.
- Freshmen Eno Nto, Michael Rossi, Matthew Roou and Kyle Genenbacher each made their Notre Dame debut on Friday evening.
UP NEXT
The Irish have a quick turnaround as they welcome Northern Illinois University to Alumni Stadium for a match at 7 p.m. ET on Monday, Aug. 30. The match will be broadcast on ACCNX.
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