Aug. 23, 2010
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s soccer team used a well-rounded attack to defeat the University of Illinois-Chicago 3-2 in exhibition play on Monday evening in front of 2,016 fans at Alumni Stadium. The match was the exhibition opener for the Fighting Irish.
Admission to Monday’s game was a $1 donation to Grassroot Soccer, an international AIDS awareness and education organization that reaches youth in Africa through soccer clinics. Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark, whose son Tommy is the founder and CEO of the organization, and the Notre Dame men’s soccer camp will match the donations dollar-for-dollar.
“The crowd tonight was fantastic,” said Clark. “We’ll have to get them back. The students behind the goals were absolutely phenomenal. From a soccer point of view, we won and I felt we won reasonably comfortably. We out shot them and their goalie had double the saves that we had. But it’s still early. We’re just a week into preseason and we have a lot of work to do.”
Netting goals for the Fighting Irish were juniors Aaron Maund (Dorchester, Mass./The Roxbury Latin School) and Michael Rose (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) along with sophomore Danny O’Leary (Naperville, Ill./Nequa Valley). Freshman Harrison Shipp (Lake Forest, Ill./Lake Forest) notched two assists, while junior Brendan King (Naperville, Ill./Edison Academic Center-Fla.) also had an assist.
Notre Dame opened the scoring in the 13th minute as Maund, a central defender, headed home a King free kick. The first shot on goal for UIC came in the 16th minute when a diving save from Fighting Irish junior goalkeeper Will Walsh (Morristown, N.J./Delbarton) was needed to stop an Ivan Stanisavljevic attempt. Notre Dame led 1-0 at halftime.
The Flames netted the equalizer in the 58th minute as Eric Frazier tucked a shot into the lower right corner. The Fighting Irish responded less than three minutes later when Rose, a midfielder, took a pass from Shipp and beat a defender on the right side and sent the ball into the lower left corner of the netting.
UIC threatened to knot the score again in the 62nd minute as Stanisavljevic sent a shot on frame, yet a diving punch out by Walsh preserved the Irish lead. Walsh had four saves on the night, while his counterpart Steve Purdy had eight stops.
Shipp nearly netted a goal of his own in the 73rd minute when he made a nifty move from 15 yards out and sent a shot on goal that was saved by Purdy. Notre Dame sophomore Kyle Richard (Louisville, Ky./Saint Xavier) had a shot saved in the 77th minute.
The Irish went up 3-1 in the 78th minute as Shipp played the ball to O’Leary on the right side and the sophomore deposited it into the lower left corner from 12 yards away.
A shot from UIC’s Slobodan Aleksov hit the post in the 79th minute. The Flames sliced the lead to one in the 86th minute on a goal from Alex Rickett.
Notre Dame held a 19-13 advantage in shots, while the Irish also produced five more corner kicks (10-5).
“There were some little bits of brilliance for us tonight,” added Clark. “Jeb Brovsky looked very good at times. I also have to give some applause to Harry Shipp. For a freshman to come on in his debut and get two assists is pretty impressive.”
The Fighting Irish will face Ohio State in an exhibition match at 8:00 p.m. (ET) on Saturday, Aug. 28 in Ft. Wayne, Ind. Notre Dame and IPFW will meet the following day (2:00 p.m.) in an exhibition contest.
Notre Dame will open the regular season against No. 8 UCLA on Friday, Sept. 3 at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in Bloomington, Ind. Game time is slated for 5:00 p.m. (ET). The Irish will open their regular-season home schedule against California at 7:00 p.m. (ET) on Sunday, Sept. 5 at Alumni Stadium. That match also is part of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic.
Alumni Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.
August 23, 2010
(exhibition)
UIC 0 2 – 2
Notre Dame 1 2 – 3
ND: Aaron Maund (Brendan King) 12:15; UIC: Eric Frazier (unassisted) 57:38; ND: Michael Rose (Harrison Shipp) 60:08; ND: Danny O’Leary (Harrison Shipp) 77:19; UIC: Alex Rickett (unassisted) 85:16
Shots: UIC 4-9 – 13, ND 8-11 – 19
Corner Kicks: UIC 1-4 – 5, ND 4-6 – 10
Saves: UIC 8 (Steve Purdy 8); ND 4 (Will Walsh 4)
Fouls: UIC 7, ND 16
Offsides: UIC 1, ND 2