Aug 21, 2013
DES MOINES, Iowa – After spending the past three days in Des Moines, Iowa, the Notre Dame men’s soccer team will be able to leave with a victory as the seventh-ranked Fighting Irish bested Drake, 2-0, Wednesday night in exhibition action at the Cownie Soccer Complex.
The match was scoreless at halftime, but the Irish offense produced two goals less than 10 minutes apart to secure the win. Junior forward Vince Cicciarelli put the Irish on the board with a goal in the 64th minute that was assisted by Leon Brown. Fellow junior Max Lachowecki, a left back, made it 2-0 in the 73rd minute off a feed from Luke Mishu.
Notre Dame owned the stat sheet. The Irish outshot Drake 19-7, including an 8-2 advantage in shots on goal, and they also earned the only two corner kicks of the night. Fighting Irish senior Patrick Wall started in goal and made one save in 61 minutes, while sophomore Brian Talcott played the rest of the way and also made one stop. Creighton’s Rich Gallagher made four saves and Darrin MacLeod had two, yet allowed both goals.
“We opened the game really well tonight,” Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark said. “The first 20 minutes were very, very good and we actually could have had a couple of goals in the first half. We kind of took our foot off the gas there for a bit, but we finished the game well once we got the goals.”
The Fighting Irish and Bulldogs opened the evening’s action with a 60-minute match that the hosts won 1-0. Notre Dame used several of its younger players in that contest.
“We were able to get a look at some of the younger guys in the first game and that’s always important,” Clark said. “It was also nice that we were able to work in some of the freshmen into the second game as well.”
Notre Dame opened exhibition play Sunday with two games at Creighton. The Fighting Irish fell 1-0 in the full match and the shortened contest was a scoreless draw. The squad departed for Des Moines Monday morning and it has spent the past two days training in Iowa. The team’s seven-day journey will end Thursday afternoon when they arrive back on the Notre Dame campus. The Irish will continue preseason practice Friday morning.
“This has been a great trip for us because we’ve been able to play a lot of games and getting on the road also brings the team closer together,” Clark said. “Today was also important because we were able to play in humidity for really the first time this preseason because the weather has been so nice. That’s important because I know we’ll have to play some more games in the humidity.”
The Irish conclude exhibition play Monday against Ohio State at Alumni Stadium. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. (ET). That match will be Notre Dame’s annual game to benefit Grassroot Soccer (GRS), which is an international non-governmental organization that uses the power of soccer to educate, inspire and mobilize communities against the spread of HIV. GRS has a special connection to Notre Dame soccer as Dr. Tommy Clark, the eldest son of the Irish head coach, founded the organization. This will be the 10th season that Notre Dame has held a match to benefit GRS. Admission to the game is a $1 donation to GRS. Additional donations will be accepted throughout the match.
Notre Dame will begin the regular season Aug. 30 against No. 9 UCLA at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in Bloomington, Ind. The Irish will face SMU Sept. 1 in the second day of the tournament.
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