April 21, 2006
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – The Notre Dame men’s soccer team used a four-goal second half to break open the match versus the Mexico Under-17 National Team en route to a 5-0 victory in front of 2,038 fans on a beautiful Friday night at Alumni Field. Junior Justin McGeeney (Ames, Iowa/Ames) led the Fighting Irish offensive outburst with two goals on the night. Notre Dame will wrap up its spring season on Sunday with three mini-games at the Eck Fields.
The match was scoreless until the 38th minute when junior Ryan Miller (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) headed in a Kurt Martin (McAllen, Texas/Memorial) corner kick to put the Irish up 1-0. Notre Dame would continue to control the ball for the remainder of the half and out-shoot Mexico 13-2 in the half and 25-5 for the game.
“I think it was a very good performance for us,” stated Notre Dame head coach Bobby Clark following the match. “We moved the ball very well and controlled it very well. It was a great atmosphere to play in front of and it was a beautiful night.”
Sophomore Kyle Dulworth (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Homestead) ignited the surge in the second half as he connected on a shot from 25-yards out that deflected off of the right post and sailed into the back of the net with nearly six minutes elapsed in the half. McGeeney netted his first score of the night in the 63rd minute when he deposited a shot with the assist going to Greg Dalby (Poway, Calif./Poway).
Notre Dame maintained its dominance late in the game as freshman Bright Dike (Edmond, Okla./Edmond North) took the ball past a Mexican defender and ripped a shot that found the net in the 74th minute to put the Irish up 4-0. McGeeney then put the capper on the contest as he spun by a defender and put the ball in for his second goal of the evening.
“We had some pretty goals tonight,” said Clark. “Justin’s (McGeeney) was terrific and Kyle (Dulworth) scored a nice one as well. It was great to see the young guys play well and you can tell they are maturing.”
The offensive output was the largest for the Irish this spring as they were coming off 0-0 ties to both Indiana and Bethel College.
“The spring is a big teaching time,” commented Clark. “The spring is the most important time to learn because the fall is about competing. Everyone gets a look in the spring and the results are not as important but it’s always nice to win. We try to take what we do in practice and use the games as a test. Then we take what we didn’t do well during the test and work on it during practice.”
Freshman Andrew Quinn (Silver Spring, Md./DeMatha) saw the majority of the minutes in goal and was not given much of a test by the Mexican squad. Fellow freshman Luke Seibolt (Gilbert, Ariz./Gilbert) played the final eight-plus minutes and collected the only save of the night for the Irish.
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Mexico 0 0 – 0
Notre Dame 1 4 – 5
ND: Ryan Miller (Kurt Martin) 37:02, ND: Kyle Dulworth (unassisted) 50:48, ND: Justin McGeeney (Greg Dalby) 62:18, ND: Bright Dike (unassisted) 73:57, ND: Justin McGeeney (unassisted) 78:46
Shots: MEX 2-3 – 5, ND 13-12 – 25
Corner Kicks: MEX 0-2 – 2, ND 5-7 – 12
Saves: MEX 6 (Jesus Dautt 6), ND 1 (Luke Seibolt 1)
Fouls: MEX 8, ND 5
Offsides: MEX 1, ND 0
-ND–