The No. 2 Irish battled ACC rival No. 5 Maryland down to the wire and pushed the game into a second overtime to finish the match as a 1-1 draw Tuesday at Alumni Stadium in South Bend, Ind.
In what was the first and last meeting of Notre Dame and Maryland as fellow members of the ACC, the Irish (6-0-4, 3-0-2) and the Terrapins (5-2-4, 4-0-1) left everything on the field in a fight between two aggressive offensives.
Irish coach Bobby Clark said playing against Maryland is always a great matchup, and despite the tie he felt the team had a strong performance.
"Maryland is always a well-prepared team, and I felt very happy about our performance," Clark said. "Having said that I thought they were always very dangerous, I felt we dominated the game and had better opportunities."
The Irish dominated the first period of play and much of the game as they outshot the Terrapins 23-9. The Irish had a total of eight shots on goal in the first period, while the Terrapins only had one. Senior forward Harrison Shipp and sophomore midfielder Patrick Hodan both tallied two shots on goal.
Despite the attempts at goal of the Irish, the teams ended the first period scoreless.
The Terrapins came into the second period with two shots at goal immediately within the first 10 minutes of the period. The Irish stepped up their attack game with Shipp and junior forward Vince Cicciarelli leading the pack.
Cicciarelli had the first of his four looks at goal in the 56th minute from the 18-yard box, but was taken down by the Maryland defenders.
In the 61st minute, Cicciarelli found a break with no Maryland defenders stepping up to block him and scored on an assist from fifth-year senior defender Grant Van De Casteele to get the ball pasd Maryland goalkeeper freshman Zack Steffen. This marked Cicciarelli's second career goal, following his first career goal last Wednesday in Notre Dame's 2-0 victory over Indiana.
The Irish saw their 1-0 lead slip a way when Maryland freshman forward Patrick Mullins scored on an assist from junior midfielder MikiasEticha in the 72nd minute.
The Irish could not tally another goal in the remaining 1n minutes, and the Irish and Terrapins entered the first overtime period.
The Irish came up scoreless in the first OT despite an attempt at goal by Shipp, who came down the right side and missed finding the back post by inches. The second overtime proved no different as the Notre Dame and Maryland offenses continued to fight for that one last goal to win the game.
Shipp said even though the team did not score in overtime to get the win, the team had a strong OT performance.
"We had a successful overtime game against Clemson last week, so we just wanted to stay aggressive," Shipp said. "We outshot [Maryland] in the game, so we knew we had the upper hand, but unfortunately I had a shot that went wide and [sophomore midfielder Connor] Klekota had a shot that hit almost the outside of the post, so hopefully next time in overtime those go in."
Cicciarellli agreed that the team played very well in overtime but had some unlucky breaks.
"Our fitness really played a huge role there, and we were pushing it down their throats the whole game, but just couldn't get one [goal]." he said.
The Irish head into their next game against Virginia Tech on Friday at Thompson Field in Blacksburg, Va., at 7 p.m.
Contact Kit Loughran at kloughr1@nd.edu
kloughr1@nd.edu
