SOUTH BEND, Ind. –Notre Dame will end the regular season on the road, as it has two ACC tests remaining on the schedule. The Irish travel out west for their first ever conference clash with Cal at 6 p.m. ET on Sunday, Oct. 27. The match will be streamed on ACCNX.
NOTRE DAME vs. CAL
Location: Berkeley, Calif. | Edwards Stadium
Watch: ACCNX
Live Stats: Click Here
Twitter Updates: @NDMenSoccer
Game Notes: vs. Cal
THE CAL SERIES
• The Irish and Bears will meet on the pitch for the fourth time on Sunday.
• Notre Dame is unbeaten in the all-time series against Cal, going 2-0-1.
• The Irish have outscored Cal by a combined score of 7-1 in the series, recording two clean sheets in the process.
• The Irish defeated the Bears in the most recent matchup, winning by a score of 5-0 in Bloomington during the 2016 campaign on Sept. 4.
• Sunday’s match will be the first that is played outside the state of Indiana in the series between the two sides.
LAST TIME OUT
• The Irish attack erupted for five goals in the second half in a 5-0 win over UIC in the regular-season home finale.
• Both Sebastian Green and Wyatt Lewis registered the first brace of their career, each scoring two goals.
• Jack Flanagan scored the opener for the Irish and now has four on the season, ranking second on the team in goals.
• Collin Travasos made two saves and the backline limited the UIC scoring opportunites resulting in a clean sheet.
MATTHEW ROOU: THE GOAL SCORING MACHINE
• Senior forward Matthew Roou enters Sunday’s match tied for third in the country in goals with 12 on the season.
• Roou is in the best form of his career, scoring 11 goals over his last nine 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.
• 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 78 career points off 33 goals and 12 assists.
• Roou is currently 12th on the ND all-time goal scoring list and is one goal away from tying Pat Szanto for 11th (34).
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 leads the Irish in assists with a career-high eight on the season.
• Boneau’s average of .57 assists per match ranks first in the ACC.
• Boneau scored four goals and added seven assists last season as a center midfielder and has four goals and 15 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
• Thirteen 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, Ferguson, Green, Lewis).
• 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 second in the ACC in assists per game, averaging 2.29 on the year.
• Bryce Boneau paces the Irish with eight assists while KK Baffour has dished out four and Sebastian Green, Mitch Ferguson and Ian Shaul have each 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 10 of 14 matches in 2024.
• Four of the 10 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.
• The Irish are outscoring teams 12-3 over the opening 45 minutes of play this season.
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.