Sept. 13, 1998

NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Notre Dame and Pittsburgh each scored twice in the first half, and for the second straight year, the two teams battled to an overtime deadlock, as the Irish and Panthers played to a 2-2 tie at Alumni Field.

Freshman Shane Walton (San Diego, Calif.) netted his fifth goal of the 1998 campaign and scored in his fourth consecutive game, while teammate Ryan Cox (Broadview Hts., Ohio) put in second goal of the season as the two accounted for the Notre Dame scoring.

The Irish received strong goalkeeping from Greg Velho (Longwood, Fla.) who finished the game with a season-high nine saves and came away with some outstanding stops, including two in the overtime session.

Pittsburgh, which outshot the Irish 20-13 in the contest and owned a 6-4 advantage in corner kicks go on the scoreboard first when Drew Kopp’s first of two goals made it past Velho in the left corner of the goal to put the visitors up 1-0.

Walton tied the game less than five minutes later when his right-footed flick directly in front of Pittsburgh goalkeeper Chris Hanlon off of Cox’ feed that came following Ben Bocklage’s (St. Louis, Mo.) feed from 35 yards out.

Cox gave the Irish the lead 2-1 at the 29:26 mark when he blasted a shot from the left corner of the penalty on an assist from Walton. Kopp provided the game’s final score on the day when his header got past Velho into the left corner of the net.

Both teams had scoring chances in the second-half before the overtime session, but neither could capitalize. Freshman Antonio Bernal (Barranquilla, Columbia) took Notre Dame’s only two shots in the overtime session and nearly scored both times.

Pittsburgh also had scoring chances in both 15-minute overtime stanzas, but Velho came up with five saves on all five attempts. Pittsburgh’s Hanlon was equally impressive in net as he made six stops.

Notre Dame, which is now 3-0-1 overall and 1-0-1 in the BIG EAST, is off until next Friday night, September 18 when the Irish travel to Rutgers to face the Scarlet Knights for a 7:00 p.m. contest. With the tie, Pittsburgh is now 3-0-2 and 0-0-1 in league play.

Scoring Summary: UP: Drew Kopp – 14:02; ND: Shane Walton (Ryan Cox, Ben Bocklage) – 19:50; ND: Ryan Cox (Shane Walton) – 29:26; UP: Drew Kopp (Phil Matilla) – 33:16

Shots:  ND: 13, UP 20Corner Kicks:  ND: 4, UP: 6Goalie Saves:  ND 9 (Velho - 9); UP 6 (Hanlon - 6)Fouls:  ND 20; UP 26