SOUTH BEND, Ind. — The Fighting Irish men’s soccer team recorded a 1-0 clean sheet victory over Virginia Tech in an ACC matchup on Friday evening at Alumni Stadium in front of a packed crowd.
The Notre Dame goal was scored by junior left back Paddy Burns, as he converted a second half penalty to deliver the Irish the victory.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish created multiple chances in the opening stages of Friday’s fixture, putting early pressure on the Hokies’ backline. Daniel Russo fired a shot just wide of the far post in the fourth minute. Borso had two good looks at goal over the next 10 minutes but both were saved by the Virginia Tech keeper.
KK Baffour was inches away from giving the Irish the lead in the 33rd minute, as the freshman collected a pass at the edge of the box before rifling a shot off the post that went out for a throw-in.
The Irish had a golden opportunity in the 39th minute, as Nick Legendre was taken down in the box to earn a penalty. Unfortunately for Notre Dame, the attempt was saved and the match remained scoreless.
Notre Dame kept pushing forward and nearly scored before the halftime break. Eno Nto fired a shot that the Hokies’ goalie tipped off the bar to keep the Irish off the board.
In the 59th minute the Irish earned their second penalty of the evening when Russo was brought down in the area. Burns stepped up to the spot and sent the keeper the wrong way to give the Irish the 1-0 lead.
The Irish continued to control large portions of play and the defense refused to allow the visitors many quality chances over the final minutes of play, as Notre Dame comfortably saw out the 1-0 victory.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the performance…
“Obviously I’m proud to get the result. We knew coming into the game that Virginia Tech is a far better team than their record right now so we have a lot of respect for them and it took everything for us to get the goal and I’m really happy we saw out the victory.”
On the clean sheet performance…
“This time of the year you want to be picking up clean sheets. I think it’s huge and gives a lot of confidence to our backline and our goalkeeper but also overall as a team to keep a strong attacking team off the board.”
On the message to the team after creating many chances…
“You just have to keep pushing. With soccer the hardest thing to do in the game is score and so after missing a penalty I was really proud of how the guys handled it and continued to push and we finally got the breakthrough.”
On the crowd…
“It was an excellent crowd. It was so nice to play in front of a big crowd with so many soccer fans and it was great to have our alumni in town and give them a victory.”
ND STAT OF THE MATCH
The Irish defense didn’t allow a single shot on target in the match.
ND NOTES
- The Irish improved to 7-6-1 against Virginia Tech in the all-time series.
- Burns now has a team-leading five goals on the season and eight in his career.
- The clean sheet was Bryan Dowd’s second of the season and 13th of his career.
UP NEXT
The Irish wrap up their home portion of the regular season schedule at 7 p.m. ET on Tuesday, Oct. 25 in a midweek matchup against Michigan for Senior Night. The Senior Night ceremony will occur before the contest. The game will be televised on ACCN.
FOLLOW THE IRISH ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For a behind the scenes look at the Notre Dame men’s soccer program follow the Irish on Twitter (@NDMenSoccer), Instagram (@ndmensoccer), Facebook (/NDMenSoccer) and TikTok (@ndmensoccer).