#24 Notre Dame Men’s Soccer Is 1-0-1 To Start The 2018 Season

For the Notre Dame men’s soccer team, the season has started on a positive note.

The Irish started things off back on August 20th with a 3-1 victory in a preseason exhibition win over Valparaiso. Senior midfielder Sean Macleod scored the first goal of the season for ND early in the first half of that one. Valpo tied it up towards the end of the end of the half. Then in what would be a very physical second half (13 total fouls), Felicien Dumas put the Irish up with a PK goal and Ian Aschieris extended it with a goal in the final two minutes.

Then in the regular season opener, the Irish played unranked St. Louis to a 1-1 tie. Neither team scored in the fist half. In the second half, ND took the lead off a goal from the captain Patrick Berneski, who knocked it in off a cross from Dumas in the 63rd minute. The Irish had a few chances to extend the lead, but could not capitalize. Then in the last minute of regulation, Chase Niece of the Billikens took a free kick at midfield and then it was knocked in by Anthony Brown. The teams played two overtime periods, but the game ultimately ended in a draw. Regardless, this was a relatively positive performance by the Irish, while room for improvement was clearly there.

This past Friday in Bloomington, Notre Dame got in the win column with a 3-0 win over the #18 team in the country: the UConn Huskies. The defensive effort, led by Berneski, was absolutely stifling in this one limiting the Huskies to just one shot on goal. Berneski also had a goal in this one, along with Blake Townes and Aidan McFadden. The victory marked the first of head coach Chad Riley’s newly-begun tenure with the Irish and the Irish’s fourth in a row over UConn.

Next, Notre Dame will face Riley’s former team, Dartmouth, on Sunday night (Sept. 2nd) in Bloomington. After that, they head to Syracuse to begin ACC play on Friday night at 7 PM.