Sept. 6, 2000
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The University of Notre Dame men’s soccer team dropped a 3-1 decision to 21st-ranked Bradley in the home opener, marking just the fourth loss in a home opener in 24 seasons.
Notre Dame, which fell to 1-1-1 on the season, dominated the contest and owned a 26-7 shot advantage. The Irish defense held the visiting Braves to just one shot in the second half. Bradley, however, capitalized by scoring three goals on just seven shots.
The Braves led 2-0 at the break with Gavin Glinton netting both of the scores. Glinton put Bradley on the scoreboard 3:07 into the contest when he took a feed from Hamid Mehreioskouei and shot the ball from just outside the right corner of the penalty box past Irish goalkeeper Greg Tait (Fayetteville, N.Y.). Glinton added his second score of the game at the 36:44 when he followed his own missed shot that rebounded off a Tait.
Bradley goalkeeper Adam Gross made some key saves in both halves and finished with nine saves on the night in the first-ever meeting between the two schools.
Notre Dame, which had a 16-1 shot advantage in the second half, scored its only goal on a penalty kick by Griffin Howard (San Diego, Calif.). It marked the second goal scored by Howard on penalty kick. The senior midfielder scored his first collegiate goal off of a penalty kick in the season opener against New Mexico.
Mehreioskouei scored Bradley’s final goal with under nine minutes to play in the game off a breakaway feed from Justin Arabadjief. With the win, the Braves improve to 3-1 on the season.
We certainly had chances to score tonight, but I think we need to create more dangerous scoring chances, first-year Irish head coach Chris Apple said. The most important thing we need to work on is our defense. The team lives and dies by its defense and we need to concentrate on shutting our opponents down.
We’re still young team and we’re only going to get better. Tonight we dominated the game against a top 20 opponent and lost. There were many positives things, however, that came out of this game.
Notre Dame returns to action on Sat., Sept. 9 when it travels to Chestnut Hill, Mass., to face Boston College at 1:00 p.m. in the BIG EAST opener for both teams.
Bradley (3-0-0) 2 1 -- 3Notre Dame (1-1-1) 0 1 -- 1
SCORING: Bradley: Gavin Glinton (Hamid Mehreioskouei), 3:07, Bradley: Gavin Glinton, 36:44, Notre Dame: Griffin Howard, 76:05, Bradley: Hamid Mehreioskouei (Justin Arabadjief), 81:11, SHOTS: Notre Dame 26, Bradley 7, CORNER KICKS: Notre Dame 7, Bradley 3, FOULS: Notre Dame 17, Bradley 17, GOALIE SAVES: Notre Dame 3 (Greg Tait – 3), Bradley 9 (Adam Gross – 9)