Aug. 23, 2007
FORT WAYNE, Ind. – The No. 11 Notre Dame men’s soccer team opened its 2007 season in fine fashion with a 3-0 victory over No. 10 New Mexico on Thursday evening at the Fort Wayne Soccer Club. The Irish used goals from Kurt Martin (McAllen, Texas/Memorial), Michael Thomas (Olathe, Kan./St. Thomas Aquinas) and Steven Perry (Edmond, Okla./Bishop McGuinness) to defeat the Lobos. The match was part of the National Soccer Festival.
Notre Dame got on the board early as the senior Martin netted an unassisted goal in the sixth minute. Fellow senior Chris Cahill (Louisville, Ky./DeSales) played the first half in goal for the Fighting Irish and made three saves.
The Irish made it 2-0 as Thomas, a sophomore, scored in the 87th minute with the assists going to junior Cory Rellas (Plano, Texas/Plano West) and freshman Jeb Brovsky (Lakewood, Colo./Green Mountain). Rellas picked up his second assist of the match as the freshman Perry put home Notre Dame’s third goal of the night in the 89th minute. Junior goalkeeper Andrew Quinn (Silver Spring, Md./DeMatha) played the second half for the Irish and stopped one Lobo shot.
Notre Dame will play its second and final exhibition game of the 2007 preseason on Monday, Aug. 27 against No. 20 Northwestern at Alumni Field at 7:00 p.m. (ET). All proceeds from the match against the Wildcats will benefit Grassroot Soccer, an international AIDS awareness and education organization that reaches youth in Africa through soccer clinics. Admission to the contest is $1. Further donations are welcome.
Stay up-to-date on the Fighting Irish men’s soccer team by logging on to und.com or by calling the Notre Dame Athletics Hotline at (574) 631-3000. Also go to und.com to sign up for Irish Alert to receive text message score and result updates for all 26 varsity sports at Notre Dame.
#11 Notre Dame 1 2 – 3
#10 New Mexico 0 0 – 0
ND: Kurt Martin (unassisted) 5:29, ND: Michael Thomas (Cory Rellas, Jeb Brovsky) 86:40, ND: Steven Perry (Cory Rellas) 88:32
Shots: ND 13, NM 9
Corner Kicks: ND 4, NM 2
Saves: ND 4, NM 2
Fouls: ND 14, NM 13