SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Notre Dame Fighting Irish are back in action in a key ACC matchup against UNC at 7 p.m. ET on Friday, Oct. 11 at Alumni Stadium. The game will air on ACCNX.
NOTRE DAME vs. NORTH CAROLINA
Location: South Bend, Ind. | Alumni Stadium
Watch: ACCNX
Live Stats: Click Here
Twitter Updates: @NDMenSoccer
Game Notes: vs. UNC
THE UNC SERIES
• The Irish and Tar Heels will meet on the pitch for the 14th time on Friday evening in program history.
• The Irish trail in the series with a mark of 3-7-3.
• The two sides battled to a 1-1 draw in Chapel Hill in their only matchup last season.
• Six of the last eight meetings have either been decided by one goal or ended in a draw.
MATTHEW ROOU: THE GOAL SCORING MACHINE
• Senior forward Matthew Roou enters Friday’s match tied for the lead in the country in goals with 11 on the season.
• Roou is in the best form of his career, scoring 10 goals over his last six outings, including back-to-back hat tricks during the stretch.
• The forward became the first Notre Dame men’s soccer player since Kevin Lovejoy in 1979 to record multiple hat tricks in a season.
• The senior is one of six players in the country averaging at least a goal per game.
• Roou came through in the clutch in Notre Dame’s 2-1 win over Clemson, scoring the winner in the 86th minute to give the Irish the win.
• The senior is one of two players at the men’s DI level to register two hat tricks during the 2024 season, joining Massachusetts’ Alec Hughes.
• Roou scored a goal from the spot in the season opener against Akron.
• The talisman now has 74 career points off 32 goals and 10 assists.
• Roou is currently 13th on the ND all-time goal scoring list and is one goal away from tying Pat Szanto for 12th (33).
BRYCE BONEAU: 2024 CAPTAIN
• Bryce Boneau is the captain for this year’s Fighting Irish team.
• Boneau is a senior midfielder from Texas and was selected to the 2024 ACC Preseason Watch List.
• The skipper is off to a fast start this season, recording a goal and and a team-high seven assists from the midfield.
• The midfielder has already equalled his assist total from last season with seven, which was his career high.
• Boneau’s average of .64 assists per match leads the ACC and is 10th in the country.
• The senior has recorded a goal or assist in seven of the last 10 games.
• Boneau scored four goals and added seven assists last season as a center midfielder and has four goals and 14 assists in his Notre Dame career.
• Boneau was selected by Nashville SC in the third round of the 2024 MLS SuperDraft with the 75th overall pick.
BALANCED ATTACK
• Ten different players have found the back of the net for the Irish this season (Roou, Flanagan, Genenbacher, Boneau, J. Bartlett, Spicer, Dunphy, Baffour, Shaul, N. Bartlett).
• Fourteen returning Irish players registered at least one point in their Notre Dame career, as the team returned 85 points from last year.
• Ten players that scored a goal during the 2023 campaign are back on this year’s team.
• Senior Matthew Roou is the top returning goal scorer on the 2024 squad after firing in a career-high 10 goals during his junior campaign.
HERE TO ASSIST
• Notre Dame ranks fourth in the ACC in assists per game, averaging 2.09 on the year.
• Bryce Boneau paces the Irish with seven assists while KK Baffour has dished out four and Sebastian Green has added three.
• All three of Green’s assists came in the win over Chicago State, tying the junior for the national lead for most assists in a game at the men’s DI level.
• The Irish dished out 48 assists last season, ranking sixth in the country for total assists.
STRONG STARTS
• Notre Dame has made a habit of jumping out to an early lead this season, as the Irish have scored the opening goal in seven of 11 matches in 2024.
• Four of the seven opening goals came within the first 20 minutes of play.
•The quickest goal to start a match came from Bryce Boneau in the seventh minute in the win over Louisville.
BK THE GK
• Blake Kelly has already made an impact in his freshman season as the goalkeeper of the Fighting Irish.
• Kelly made a career-high eight saves in the draw at Indiana.
• The freshman followed it up with his first career win in the ACC opener against Louisville, making four saves while allowing just one goal.
• The goalie started the season opener, marking the first time a true freshman goalie has started an opener for the Irish in over 30 seasons.
2023 SEASON REWIND
• Notre Dame had one of its most successful seasons in program history last year, finishing with an appearance in the College Cup Final.
• The Irish were dominant in the ACC, claiming the Coastal Division crown and earning the No. 1 seed for the conference tournament after going undefeated in regular season conference play with a record of 6-0-2.
• Notre Dame finished the season with a record of 13-3-6 but two of the draws resulted in the Irish advancing in the NCAA Tournament in shootouts.
• The Fighting Irish defeated Kentucky (2-0) in the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament before moving past Western Michigan (0-0) and Indiana (1-1) to make the College Cup.
• Notre Dame then defeated Oregon State (1-0) in the semifinal before falling to Clemson (1-2) in the final.