SOUTH BEND, Ind. – The Fighting Irish men’s soccer team played almost the entire second half with 10 men against No. 6 NC State and fell by a score of 3-0, with all three goals coming in the final 45 minutes of play.
Notre Dame is now 7-3-4 on the season and 2-2-2 in ACC play.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish created the first chance of the evening, as Nolan spicer played Jack Flanagan down the flank in the opening minute, but the junior’s effort rolled wide of the far post.
In the 19th minute, Notre Dame earned a free kick in the attacking half and KK Baffour played a dangerous ball into the area, falling to Diego Ochoa’s feet. The graduate student’s shot was right at the Wolfpack keeper.
The visitors created a number of half chances throughout the opening 45 minutes, but were held in check by the Irish defense, as the match was scoreless at halftime.
The pivotal moment of the contest came just 27 seconds after the intermission, as the Irish received a red card and were forced to play with 10 men for the remainder of the evening.
Notre Dame defended admirably for 20 minutes before an NC State shot took a deflection and redirected into the back of the net to put the Wolfpack on top 1-0 in the 67th minute.
Ten minutes later, the visitors doubled their lead, as Notre Dame goalkeeper Blake Kelly made a save, but the rebound was scored by Aidan Payne, his second of the evening, to make it 2-0.
NC State went on to add one more in the final 11 minutes of play to leave with a 3-0 win.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the match…“Obviously disappointed in the way the game turned out. We knew NC State was a good team and they caused us some problems in the first half, and we caused some of our own problems connecting passes.
“Our team usually responds well in the second half, so we felt there w