Coming off a 3-2 win against Hope College on Tuesday night, Notre Dame men’s soccer returns to ACC play tonight taking on the Virginia Tech Hokies. The Irish enter the match ranked No. 23 in the country with an overall record of 6-2-2 and a record in conference play of 2-1-0, while the Hokies enter the match unranked with an overall record of 3-2-3 and are still looking for their first win in conference play as they enter tonight's match 0-2-1. Tonight is the penultimate match in a long seven-game homestand, and the Irish are coming in hot with wins in five of their last six.
The Notre Dame defense allowed only three goals in their first six matches, but they now have let in six goals in the last two. Led by senior captain Mitch Ferguson, this defense has shown the ability to be one of the best in the nation, but they do have a few questions to answer with their recent performance. Goalkeeper Blake Kelly boasts a 78.6% save percentage to his name and has continued to be one of the top goalkeepers in the nation.
This season started with the defense shouldering most of the workload, but since their game against Pittsburgh, the offense has scored 12 goals in their past five games. Ferguson, largely helped by that hat trick against Wright State, still leads the team with four goals on the year, but freshman Luke Burton and senior Wyatt Borso trail closely behind, as each of them have three goals on the year. Virginia Tech boasts a very good defense up to this point in the year, but the Irish offense has been rolling in recent games and they will be one of the better units the Hokies have seen up to this point.
The Hokies record of 3-2-3 may not look too threatening, but they have played a very strong schedule as Notre Dame is the fourth team they will face this season that has been is in the top 25. They dropped their match to Stanford and Ohio, each the 3rd ranked teams in the country at the time but were able to force a tie against Marshall, who was No. 2 and is currently ranked No. 32 in the country. The Hokies had been in a bit of a slump though as they were on a five game winless streak, but they were able to get out of it with a 1-0 win against East Tennessee State University Monday night.
Defense has been the key to their game this year, only allowing an average of one goal a game and having four shutouts on the year. The key player to watch for on that side of the ball for the Hokies is Junior Noe Uwimana. He has played every minute of every game for the Hokies so far this year and is the only field player that has done so. They can attribute a large part of their success on the defensive side to him.
Virginia Tech has struggled on the offensive side though as they only average 1.14 goals per game, only scoring more than once in three of their eight games this year. Only one player, sophomore midfielder Alex Perez, has more than one goal on the year for the Hokies. They put up 13 shots per game, which is solid, but have struggled to convert on most of those attempts. They’ll need to get the offense going if they want to win this game as Notre Dame has been one of the best offenses in the ACC recently.
Men’s soccer kicks off at 8:30 p.m. Friday, Oct. 5 at Alumni Stadium.
