Sept. 21, 1999
NOTRE DAME, Ind. — The Notre Dame men’s soccer team (3-2-1, 1-1-1) plays two non-conference games in California as the Irish travel to Moraga, for the Saint Mary’s Tournament this weekend. Notre Dame meets the host Gaels on Friday, September 24 at 2:00 p.m. (PST) and then plays 16th-ranked San Diego on Sunday, September 26 at 1:00 p.m. (PST).
WEEK IN REVIEW: Cleveland State: Senior Ryan Cox (Broadview Heights, Ohio) scored his first goal of the 1999 campaign at the 37:26 mark of the first half to lift the Irish to their third shutout of the season with a 1-0 victory. Cox scored the game-winner when he kicked in Alan Lyskawa’s (Novi, Mich.) ball that rebounded off the post. Lyskawa’s attempt came from the left corner on a ball that was fed from the right corner of the box by Dustin Pridmore (Dallas, Texas). Notre Dame thoroughly dominated the contest as it outshot the Vikings 22-2 in the game, and did not allow a shot in the first half. Connecticut: Playing its third overtime contest in four games, Notre Dame lost a tough 2-1 overtime decision at Connecticut when Luis Arauz scored 15:41 into sudden death overtime to lift the 19th-ranked and defending BIG EAST regular-season champions to the win after the two teams had battled to a scoreless first-half tie. Irish freshman Erich Braun (Frankfurt, Germany) provided the equalizer in the game when he scored on a free kick with 2:43 remaining in the contest. The two teams battled to a scoreless tie in teh first half. The Huskies got on the scoreboard first when Chris Gbandi scored on a 10-yard blast past Irish goalkeeper Gerick Short (Mobile, Ala.) early in the first half. Short made a career-high seven saves in the game as the Irish were outshot 17-11.
SETON HALL POSTPONEMENT: The inclement weather conditions in the Northeast forced the postponement of Notre Dame’s game at Seton Hall on September 17. The contest has tentatively been rescheduled for Wednesday, November 3.
HEAD COACH MIKE BERTICELLI: Notre Dame head coach Mike Berticelli is in his 10th season at Notre Dame and his 24th as a collegiate coach. He has led Notre Dame to three of the school’s four NCAA tournament appearances (1993, 1994 and 1996). In 1996, his Irish squad won the school’s first-ever NCAA tournament game when it defeated second-seeded UNC Greensboro in the first round. Berticelli has a 99-73-17 (.569) mark at Notre Dame and is 286-128-40 (.674) overall. He coached his 450th career game against Boston College on September 4 and needs just one more victory to claim his 100th coaching win with the Irish. In three of the last six seasons, his Notre Dame teams have won conference tournament titles. Under Berticelli, the Irish claimed the 1996 BIG EAST tournament crown in just its second year as a member of the league with consecutive wins over ranked opponents Connecticut and Rutgers. During the 1993 and 1994 campaigns, the Irish won back-to-back MCC tournament crowns and earned berths in the NCAA tournament. Prior to coming to Notre Dame, he spent six seasons (1984-89) at Old Dominion where his teams compiled a 76-27-16 record for a .706 winning percentage. Berticelli coached for four years at UNC-Greensboro (1980-83) with his teams compiling a 70-9-5 record (.863) and winning two Division III national crowns in 1982 and 1983. His first head coaching stint was at Thomas College where he coached from (1976-79) with his teams posting a 41-19-2 mark during that four-year span. The Irish have won 10-plus games in six of his nine seasons at the Notre Dame helm.
IRISH FIND IT TOUGH TO SCORE: Scoring goals has been tough for the Irish in their first six games. The five goals in six games is the fewest scored by any Notre Dame team.
SERIES RECORDS VS. UPCOMING OPPONENTS: Saint Mary’s: This will be the second straight year the two teams have played each other in Moraga, Calif. Last year, Notre Dame earned a 2-1 victory over the Gaels in the first-ever meeting between the two teams. San Diego: This will be the first-ever game played between the two schools.
BERTICELLI JUST ONE WIN AWAY FROM 100: Mike Berticelli, in his 10th season at Notre Dame, is just one win shy of his 100th coaching victory with the Irish. His current record stands at 99-73-17. Just the third coach in the 22-year history of the program, Berticelli would become the second Notre Dame coach to garner 100 wins. Rich Hunter, the program’s first head coach from 1977-83, produced a 128-32-8 mark during his seven-year tenure.
BRAUN FINDS THE GOAL AGAIN: Freshman Erich Braun has been the only multiple-goal scorer for the Irish. The rookie from Frankfurt, Germany, one of two Germans on the team, had the game-tying goal against Connecticut in the eventual 2-1 overtime loss to the Huskies.
SIX FRESHMAN IN THE STARTING LINEUP: Notre Dame has six of its 10 freshmen in the starting lineup in each of its last four games. Five of those rookies were in the starting lineup in the season opener against Northwestern and have started all six games tihis season. The six freshmen currently in the Irish starting lineup are: Justin Ratcliffe (Miami, Fla.), Andreas Forstner (Gerlinden, Germany), Erich Braun, Rafael Garcia (Palmdale, Calif.), Paul Rodriguez (San Antonio, Texas) and Alan Lyskawa.
FRESHMAN SCORING BONANZA: Four of the five goals Notre Dame has scored this season have come from members of its freshman class. Erich Braun has scored twice as he produced the game-winner in a 1-0 shutout of Boston College and tallied the game-tying score in the eventual 2-1 overtime loss at Connecticut. Rafael Garcia scored the first goal of the season in the 1-0 win at Northwestern in the season opener, while midfielder Alan Lyskawa also had a goal in Notre Dame’s 1-1 tie at Pittsburgh.
IRISH FACE THREE STRAIGHT NON-CONFERENCE: Notre Dame’s next three games will be against non-conference foes. Following contests against Saint Mary’s and San Diego in Moraga, Calif., the Irish host Eastern Michigan on Wednesday, September 29 at 7:00 p.m. before returning to BIG EAST action on Saturday, October 2 at 7:30 p.m. against Syracuse at Alumni Field.
HOME COOKIN’: After this weekend’s two games in California, Notre Dame will play seven of its remaining 10 games at home. The Irish have a four-game homestand beginning with Eastern Michigan on September 26, which includes a stretch of six of seven games at Alumni Field. In fact, Coach Mike Berticelli’s squad will not leave the state of Indiana to play again until Wednesday, October 20 when it travels to West Virginia. Notre Dame is at Valparasio on Tuesday, October 12 in its only road contest after this weekend.
GOING OVERTIME: Three of Notre Dame’s last four games have gone to overtime. The Irish own an 0-2-1 mark in overtime contests already this season. Overtime games are something Notre Dame grew accustomed to a year ago as the Irish played six overtime contests in 1998. At one point during last season, Coach Mike Berticelli’s squad played a school-record five consecutive overtime contests.
SHORT IN GOAL: Prior to the start of the season, fifth-year player Gerick Short had only seen action in six total games throughout his career and had made just two starts. He also had not played in a game since midway through the 1996 campaign. This season, Short has played all 587:00 of the season and has recorded three shutouts. He has made 21 saves, including a personal best seven versus Connecticut and has a 0.46 goals against average and .840 save percentage.
McNEW GETS HIS STARTS: Graduation took its toll on the Notre Dame backfield with the losses of defenders Phil Murphy and David Cutler, central midfielder Matt Johnson and goalkeeper Greg Velho. The only returning starter in the backfield was sweeper Matt McNew, a three-year starter and second-team all-BIG EAST selection in 1998. He has started 63 of the 66 games he has played in during his Irish career, nearly double that of any other returnee in ’99. Only two other players on this year’s roster have started more than 25 games : Andrew Aris (34) and Ryan Cox (27).
HOME SWEET HOME: Notre Dame finished 5-1-2 at home last season and is 2-1 in 1999 as the Irish suffered a 1-0 overtime defeat to Western Michigan in the second home game of the season. This marks the 10th year for the Irish playing at Alumni Field where Notre Dame owns a 60-21-7 mark overall for a 72.2 winning percentage.
NSCAA/ADIDAS
(Week of September 20)
LW 1. Penn State 2 2. Santa Clara 6 3. Creighton 1 4. Maryland 5 5. Duke 4 6. Cal State Fullerton 9 7. Indiana 8 8. Saint Louis 12 9. Yale 10 10. St. John's 3 11. UCLA 1612. North Carolina 24 13. SMU 7 14. San Diego 13 15. Cincinnati 25 16. Virginia 21 17. Connecticut 19 18. Wake Forest 18 19. Seton Hall NR20. Furman 11 21. Akron 17 22. Virginia Commonwealth 14 23. Brown NR 24 Jacksonville NR 25. James Madison NR Portland NR Rutgers NR
SOCCER AMERICA
(Week of September 20)
LW 1. Maryland 1 2. Penn State 2 3. Indiana 4 4. UCLA 5 5. Santa Clara 8 6. Cal State Fullerton 9 7. Creighton 7 8. Saint Louis 10 9. SMU 310. St. John's 611. Yale 1212. Brown 1313. Duke 1114 Jacksonville 1415. Furman 1516. San Diego NR17. Virginia 1718. North Carolina NR19. Stanford 1920. Connecticut 20
1999 NSCAA GREAT LAKES
REGION RANKINGS
(Week of Sept. 20)
Pts. 1. Indiana (4-2-0) 49 2. Cincinnati (5-1-0) 44 3. Akron (4-1-1) 42 4. Oakland (4-1-1) 30 5. NOTRE DAME (3-2-1) 27 6. Dayton (3-2-1) 23 7. Kentucky (4-1-1) 20 8. Evansville (5-2-0) 15 9. Ohio State (3-3-0) 1010. IUPUI (2-2-0) 5 Wisconsin-Green Bay (3-1-1) 5
Also receiving votes: Louisville, Wisc.-Milwaukee