SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The No. 4-seed Fighting Irish turned in an impressive showing to open their NCAA Championship run, defeating Villanova 3-0 at Alumni Stadium to advance to the Round of 16 for the first time since 2018.
Notre Dame’s defense continued its great run of play, posting its fifth straight clean sheet in the victory. The Irish have now gone more than 515 minutes without conceding a goal.
Left back Paddy Burns led the attack with a career night, scoring a goal and recording an assist in the first half. Jack Lynn and Ben Giacobello also found the back of the net for Notre Dame.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish carried momentum from last week’s ACC Championship title into their NCAA opener, starting the match on the front foot and dictating play in the opening minutes. The early pressure paid off with a goal in the 18th minute as Burns played a perfect diagonal ball to Lynn, who masterfully controlled it with his first touch and then made no mistake with the finish to give the Irish the 1-0 lead.
Eighteen minutes later it was Burns who found the back of the net to double the lead. The sophomore’s initial attempt from inside the box was saved and then Lynn headed the rebound off the woodwork. Burns bolted in and headed the rebound home for his second goal of the year to push the lead to 2-0, which they took into the halftime break.
Notre Dame’s defense did a great job of limiting the Wildcats’ scoring chances in the second half and put the game away in the 85th minute with a third goal of the evening.
Matthew Roou broke into the box and had his shot from close saved and the clearance fell to Giacobello. The senior right back put his laces through the half volley from outside the box and lashed it inside the near post to put an exclamation mark on the performance and make the final score 3-0.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the performance…
“I thought it was a great performance, I really do. Villanova is a great team. They have had a historic season and beat a tough Vermont team at Vermont. They have a couple of special players so we knew it was going to be a tough challenge but I’m really proud of the way the guys came out and got early goals and then we did a really good job of seeing the game out.”
On the importance of scoring early in the first NCAA Tournament match…
“You’re always a little fearful of how the other team has already competed in the NCAA Tournament so getting a good start was paramount and I am proud of the guys for executing great at the start.”
On another clean sheet…
“It’s good. We obviously want to keep doing it but we need to remember what gets clean sheets. It is taking care of details and doing those redundant things every time that get you clean sheets and we need to make sure that we continue to do those things at a high level.”