SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The No. 10 Irish remain on the road for a huge top-10 matchup with No. 3 Akron at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Sept. 19 at FirstEnergy Stadium. The match will air on FloSports.
No. 10 NOTRE DAME vs. No. 3 AKRON
Location: Akron, Ohio | FirstEnergy Stadium
TV: FloSports
Live Stats: Click Here
Twitter Updates: @NDMenSoccer
Game Notes: vs. Akron
THE AKRON SERIES
• The Irish and Zips will meet on the pitch for the 15th time on Tuesday evening.
• The Irish trail in the series with a mark of 3-8-3.
• Since the turn of the century the Irish are 3-2-1 against Akron.
• This will be the first meeting between the two sides since the 2017 matchup in Akron.
LAST TIME OUT
• Notre Dame left it late but came away with a 1-1 draw on the road against North Carolina on Friday, Sept. 15 at Dorrance Field.
• Senior forward Daniel Russo produced the heroics in the draw, scoring in the 84th minute to give Notre Dame a point in the ACC table.
• Bryan Dowd kept the Irish in the match, tying his season high in saves with four.
STRONG STARTS
• Notre Dame has made it a habit of jumping out to an early lead this season, as the Irish have scored the opening goal in five of seven matches in 2023.
•All five opening goals have come in the first 25 minutes of play.
•The quickest goal to start a match came from Eno Nto in the 8th minute in the win over IUPUI.
• The Fighting Irish are unbeaten when scoring the opening goal over the last 25 occurrences, posting a record of 24-0-1 spanning back to the early stages of the 2021 season.
SET-PIECE SUCCESS
• ND has excelled on both ends of the field on set pieces during the 2023 season.
•The Irish defense hasn’t allowed a goal off a set piece all season while in attack four of the team’s 12 goals have come via a set piece.
• Notre Dame has scored off two free kicks, a corner and a penalty kick.
DOMINATING DEFENSE
• The Fighting Irish have allowed just five goals through seven matches during the 2023 campaign.
• The 0.71 goals against average ranks third in the ACC and 21st in the country.
• Notre Dame has given up just one or no goals in six of seven matches this season.
• Since allowing a goal to No. 2 Indiana in the 28th minute in the season opener, the Irish went 376 minutes without allowing a score before giving up a score to Clemson in the 44th minute.
• Opponents have registered a combined 22 shots on target in 2023.
BALANCED ATTACK
• Six different players have scored in Notre Dame’s six matches to open the 2023 season.
• Matthew Roou paces the Irish with five goals.
• Eno Nto and Daniel Russo have each added two goals while KK Baffour, Paddy Burns and Bryce Boneau have each recorded one.
ROOU’S RUN OF FORM
• Junior Matthew Roou leads the Irish attack through seven matches this season, producing 11 points off five goals and an assist.
• Roou’s hat trick in the win over IUPUI was the first of his career and the first of the season for the Irish.
• The junior forward finished with seven points off three goals and an assist, becoming the first Notre Dame player to record seven or more points in a match since Dave Donohue also had seven points against Marquette on Sept. 11, 2008.
• Roou currently has 16 career goals to go along with eight career assists, totaling 40 career points for the forward.
EXPERIENCE IN GOAL
• Bryan Dowd is back for his senior season after being the team’s primary goalie for each of the last two seasons.
• The shot stopper has 48 career starts while appearing in 49 matches over his previous three seasons in South Bend.
• Dowd has amassed 117 career saves and has recorded 16 clean sheets over his time in South Bend, including three in the first seven matches of the 2023 campaign.
•The senior made a huge save in the 88th minute of the win over Clemson to keep the 3-2 advantage intact.