Sept. 4, 2014

(video was published on Sept. 13, 2012)

Notre Dame Match NotesGet Acrobat Reader

Tournament ProgramGet Acrobat Reader

2014 Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament
Alumni Stadium – Notre Dame, Ind.

Friday, Sept. 5
KENTUCKY
vs.
#17 INDIANA

5 p.m. (ET)
—–
DARTMOUTH
vs.
#2 NOTRE DAME

7:30 p.m. (ET)
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Sunday, Sept. 7
DARTMOUTH
vs.
#17 INDIANA

11:30 a.m. (ET)
—–
KENTUCKY
vs.
#2 NOTRE DAME

2 p.m. (ET)

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Notre Dame vs. Kentucky

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NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Fresh off another IU Classic title, the second-ranked University of Notre Dame men’s soccer team will try to secure more hardware this weekend when the program plays host to the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament at Alumni Stadium.

The action gets underway at 5 p.m. (ET) on Friday when No. 17 Indiana faces Kentucky and then Notre Dame will square off against Dartmouth at 7:30 p.m. The tournament concludes on Sunday with Indiana battling Dartmouth at 11:30 a.m. and Notre Dame takes on Kentucky at 2 p.m.

“We’ll be facing two dangerous teams this weekend,” Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark says. “Dartmouth and Kentucky are very good and they are capable of having very good seasons. Opening with Dartmouth, I don’t think we have to look beyond an NCAA game from a few years back (in 2010) when they knocked us out in the second round. We really appreciate that Dartmouth is a dangerous team and you can also add in the fact (Dartmouth head coach) Chad Riley is a former coach and player here. Also, the Kentucky head coach (Johan Cedergren) is a former Dartmouth assistant who has worked camps here.

“We’re very aware of how hard these games will be. These are two tricky games for us against teams that have some very, very good players.”

The Fighting Irish opened the regular season last Friday with a 2-1 win over No. 12 Marquette at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in Bloomington, Ind. Notre Dame played No. 9 Georgetown to a scoreless draw on Sunday and the Irish and Hoosiers finished as co-champions. It was the third straight IU Classic title for the Fighting Irish, who won the tournament outright in 2012 and 2013.

Notre Dame also is the defending champion of the Berticelli Memorial Tournament, which was not held last season due to scheduling conflicts. The Irish won the 2012 tournament with wins over Oregon State (1-0) and Akron (3-1). This is the 12th year the Fighting Irish have hosted the tournament in honor of their former head coach. Berticelli coached the Irish from 1990-99 before passing away suddenly in January of 2000.

Both Notre Dame and Indiana, an annual participant, have won the event five times.

A BIT ON “BERT”
Mike Berticelli posted a 104-80-19 record during his 10-year stint at Notre Dame. He led the Irish to three NCAA tournament appearances (1993, 1994, 1996), including the program’s first NCAA win in 1996. Berticelli guided Notre Dame to one Midwestern Collegiate Conference (MCC) regular-season title (1993) and two MCC tournament crowns (1993 & 1994). He also steered Notre Dame to its first BIG EAST tournament title in 1996.

“This tournament is always nice,” Clark says. “This is something that was started by Chris Apple, who was the interim coach and he was Bert’s (Mike Berticelli) assistant. Everyone knew Bert. He had that type of personality that everyone in college soccer knew him. I liked him and really enjoyed his company. For me, it was a very easy tradition to take up and run with. It’s also nice that two of his boys, Nino and Anthony, are both Notre Dame soccer alumni.”

RILEY RETURNS
Dartmouth head coach Chad Riley played at Notre Dame from 2000-03 and was an assistant coach for the Fighting Irish from 2006-11. Riley is in his second season at the helm of the Big Green program.

During his six seasons on the Fighting Irish bench Riley helped the team post a 71-37-21 record and earn five bids to the NCAA tournament. Notre Dame also captured two BIG EAST regular-season titles during his tenure and advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Championship on two occasions.

Riley played in 78 matches for the Fighting Irish and tallied 10 goals and 32 assists, which are the second-most in program history. Riley was an instrumental part of Notre Dame’s 2003 BIG EAST Championship-winning squad.

“Chad was with us in Africa (over the summer) and watched us play,” Clark says. “He’ll possibly know our team better than any other coach in the country so that makes it a little bit more difficult for us. We’re very aware of how hard this game will be.”

“This will be similar to last weekend against (Georgetown head coach) Brian Wiese. I coached Wiese at Dartmouth and then he worked with me at Stanford and Notre Dame. Chad is very similar and they are very close to me. It’s always a little tougher and these are harder games than playing against someone you don’t know. But it also is nice to see how they’ve moved on and Chad has done well as has Brian. That’s pretty special for me as well.”

COACHING CONNECTION
Clark was the head coach at Dartmouth for nine seasons (1985-1993) and guided the Big Green to three Ivy League titles and an overall record of 82-42-13 (.646). Dartmouth reached the quarterfinal round of the NCAA Championship under Clark in 1990 and 1992. Clark left for Stanford following the 1993 season and then came to Notre Dame prior to the 2001 campaign.

“Dartmouth was my introduction into college soccer,” Clark states. “It was a very special time and my memories are very, very happy. Hanover (N.H.) was a great place to bring up a family and my two oldest children went to Dartmouth and Tommy even went back to medical school there and now lives five miles from the school. It’s kind of a home for our family.”

“I felt we built the soccer program into a pretty strong team. I would like to think we established it as a soccer power in the Ivy League. I think it took us four years to win our first Ivy League title and then we won three out of the next six. It was fun and we had good teams.”

A LOOK BACK
Bobby Clark on last weekend’s IU Classic…

“Last weekend was a terrific way to start a season against two very good teams. The game on Sunday against Georgetown was really a classic. Having reviewed the video, I thought there were a lot of positives and there certainly are a lot of things we can improve on. There were a couple moments during the games that looked like it was the first weekend of the season. At the same time, there were many more positives than negatives to take out of both games.”

“We would have liked two wins, but I think we grew up. As I said to the team after the Georgetown game, we found out a lot about ourselves over the weekend. We have the potential to be a very good team again, but there are a lot of little things we have to tighten up. The goal we lost to Marquette and the chances we gave up to Georgetown were our own doing. You’re not going to win if you keep shooting yourself in the foot.”

“Overall, I was very, very pleased with both games. I thought we grew from the first game to the second game. Now we have to start scoring goals. We had 23 shots against Georgetown, but full marks to their goalkeeper, he was excellent.”

— Sean Carroll, Assistant Athletic Media Relations Director

–ND–