Aug. 6, 2002
ABERDEEN, Scotland – The Notre Dame men’s soccer team continued its impressive showing during its two-week tour of Scotland with an 8-1 victory over the Banks of Dee (semi-pro team), on Tuesday night in Aberdeen.
The Irish claimed a 3-0 halftime goal, after scored from Kevin Goldthwaite, Rafael Garcia and Erich Braun. Second-half goals from Chad riley, Justin Ratcliffe and Devon Prescod pushed the lead to 6-0 – with Justin Detter then answering a Banks of Dee goal by scoring immediately off the ensuing kickoff. Prescod then scored his third goal of the trip to cap the scoring.
Notre Dame used the same lineup as in Sunday’s 6-1 win over Formartine United.
The Irish next play in Dingwall vs. the Ross County under-21s on Thursday, Aug. 8, at 2:00 p.m. (8:00 a.m. in South Bend). The team’s other two remaining games are versus the Aberdeen FC under-21s (Mon., Aug. 12; 1:00 p.m./7:00 a.m. SB) and vs. Dundee United on Wednesday, Aug. 14 (1:00 p.m./7:00 a.m. SB).
Be sure to catch junior midfielder Greg Martin’s regular diary entries from the two-week tour, via the “Scottish Corner Kicks” link at www.und.com.
COMMENTS FROM HEAD COACH BOBBY CLARK: “I have come here previously with teams from Dartmouth and Stanford and the people here are very impressed with how we have played in the first two games. Our next game will be much tougher, versus full-time players from the Ross County under-21 team. And people can’t wait to see us play Aberdeen, which is one of the premier under-21 squads. They are intrigued with how we will handle that challenge. In the first few games, we basically played against older men’s teams and we had the speed of play and somewhat manhandled them. So it will be interesting to see how we do in these other games. All of the goals in the Banks of Dee game were good goals and there was quite a variety of goals, with headers and a lot of players getting into the act. We are going to the beach again (on Wednesday) to get the legs in the cold water. Then we have nearly a four-hour trip to Dingwall for T Thursday’s game. We also will be seeing the Aberdeen-Celtic match, which will be a great experience for the players. Overall it’s been a great trip and even the weather is cooperating. The team is very fit and it is paying dividends. There are so many positives from a trip like this and we will be tested in our three remaining games. This is a very close team so the chemistry had been great and the team is having a wonderful time.”