On Friday night, The Notre Dame men’s soccer team took down Boston College in Alumni Stadium. The now 5-3-1 Fighting Irish beat their conference rivals 2-1 after coming off a win against Kalamazoo.
Notre Dame freshman forward Wyatt Borso had the game’s first goal (his second of the season) in the 16th minute, assisted by sophomore defender Kyle Genenbacher. In the 40th minute, sophomore Eno Nto also scored his second goal of the season, assisted by junior Daniel Russo and junior goalkeeper Bryan Dowd.
Within eight minutes of the second half, the Eagles found the back of the net. Sophomore Jack Burgess scored unassisted for his first goal of the season.
As the game wore on, Boston College got more physical as they looked to even up the score. In the last twenty five minutes of the game, they received three yellow cards, including one on their leading scorer Stefan Sigurdarson. Defender Diego Ochoa committed five fouls during the game and at one point, the referee seemed to indicate that if he had anymore, Ochoa would receive his second yellow card of the game.
After the game, Notre Dame head coach Chad Riley was excited about the growth he’s seen in his young players.
“I think that for anybody in their first year of playing and playing big minutes in regular games, it’s about consistency. I think that their biggest challenge is how they will consistently perform at a high level,” Riley said.
Consistent play will be key for all members of the team going into their hardest stretch of the season. Next week, the Fighting Irish play at Indiana and host No. 25 Louisville, another ACC match-up. Besides the quickness of their young scorers, Notre Dame fans should also feel confident with their play on defense, especially with how Dowd has played these last few weeks.
Dowd has allowed only two goals in the last two weeks and had some spectacular saves Friday night. He was credited with four, and several came in crucial situations. At one point in the game, Dowd saved two goals within seconds of each other by making a sliding save and then getting up to make a diving stop on the rebound effort.
Overall, Riley was really impressed with how the team played against the Eagles.
“I think that was some of our best play of the year against a good team. There were some moments where [Boston College] had too much control and obviously created a couple of good chances that we fortunately dealt with," he said. "But at the same time, we cleared a couple off the line, so I liked what I saw on the attack. Now, we just have to do that for larger parts of the game.”
The Irish will face the 4-2-2 Hoosiers in Bloomington on Wednesday at 7 p.m.
Contact Annika Herko at aherko@nd.edu
