Nov. 3, 2001
Notre Dame, Ind. – The 20th-ranked Notre Dame men’s soccer team won its 11th game of the season in dramatic fashion on Saturday night as the Irish registered one of the most dramatic wins in recent memory with a 2-1 overtime win at home against Syracuse in the reguar-season finale before a season-high 1,501 fans. Freshman Kevin Goldthwaite (Sacramento, Calif.) scored the game-winning goal 3:38 into overtime off an assist from junior Andreas Forstner (Gerlinden, Germany) as Notre Dame won for the eighth time in nine games and improved to 11-5 overall and 7-3 in the BIG EAST.
High drama surrounded the final 10 minutes of the contest in a game that was dominated statistically by Notre Dame. Sophomore Devon Prescod (Marietta, Ga.) scored his sixth goal of the season with eight seconds remaining in regulation to send the contest into overtime as he knocked in a loose ball right in front of the net that was crowded by both Irish and Orangemen players.
The game-tying score came after Syracuse, which was playing a man down in the contest following Derek McGeehan ejection from the game as a result of a second yellow card at the 63:34 mark, went up 1-0 on Darren Ingles’ score off assists from Kirk Johnson and Matt Torok at the with 9:40 remaining in the game.
Notre Dame dominated Syracuse, but could not not capitalize on several scoring chances thoughout the evening. The Irish outshot the Orangemen 21-6 in the game and owned an 11-1 advantage in corner kicks. Syracuse goalkeeper Anthony Peters made eight stops and saved several Irish scoring opportunities. With the loss, the Orangemen fall to 7-7-1 and 4-5-1 in the BIG EAST.
With the win and coupled with a Boston College loss (3-2 overtime to Pittsburgh), Notre Dame will be one of the top four seeds for the 2001 BIG EAST Men’s Soccer Championship. The Irish can finish no lower than fourth in the final regular-season standings and will therefore host one of the quarterfinal games next weekend (Nov. 10 or 11) at Alumni Field. Pairing and dates and times will be announced during the upcoming week.
The 11 wins are the most for the Irish since the 1996 campaign when Notre Dame won the BIG EAST tournament crown that season en route to a 14-7-2 final record, while the seven conference victories are the most since becoming a conference member in 1995.
Scoring: SU: Darren Ingles (Kirk Johnson, Matt Torok), 80:20, ND: Devon Prescod (Justin Detter), 89:52, ND: Kevin Goldthwaite (Andreas Forstner), 93:38