Notre Dame men’s soccer dropped their opening game Thursday, falling 3-1 to Seattle University at Alumni Stadium.
It was the Redhawks who opened the scoring, with senior forward Declan McGlynn slotting home a penalty kick in the 50th minute. The spot kick came after no small amount of controversy, with the Notre Dame bench being assigned a yellow card for such intense pleading for the referee to look at VAR. Even after the Irish persuaded the officials to check again at the sideline monitor, the penalty was given and promptly dispatched by McGlynn.
From there the Redhawks took advantage of a more urgent Irish attack to notch two more goals to all but put the game away. McGlynn added a second in the 65th minute before senior forward Habib Barry bundled home a corner kick with just over ten minutes remaining to put Notre Dame away for good.
The Irish did show some signs of fight late on, with sophomore defender Kyle Genenbacher burying an 81st-minute chance, but it was too little too late to overcome the Redhawks. Despite enjoying a 19 to 10 advantage in shots and a 10 to 5 advantage in corner kicks, Notre Dame was unable to convert their chances. The Irish generally controlled the possession and flow of the game, but at the end of the day, it was the more clinical Redhawks who controlled the scoring.
Irish head coach Chad Riley was quick to give plaudits to Seattle while also acknowledging the solid foundation his team laid in their first game against a tournament-caliber opponent.
“Credit to Seattle, they created a couple chances and they finished them,” said Riley. “They were very clinical, and they’re a good team so they’re going to be an NCAA [tournament] team. I think for us in the key moments we could have done a little better, but credit to the team, I think they responded well to maybe an unfortunate penalty. When you give up the second goal it makes things really difficult, but credit to them they didn’t stop.”
The road doesn’t get any easier for the Irish looking ahead. Notre Dame is now staring down a two-game road swing against a pair of local foes, heading on the road to face Michigan State and Indiana.
Both the Spartans and the Hoosiers defeated the Irish last season, but coach Riley said the additional games against top teams only gives the team more fight for the conference and tournament games later in the season.
“I think it just speeds up the growing process,” Riley said. “It’s hard, too. But at the end of the day we want to win important games so you have to play really good teams to do that. For me, you just grow much more when you play against quality opponents.”
Notre Dame will return to Alumni Stadium Sept. 6 following their trips to East Lansing and Bloomington to face DePaul at home. The Blue Demons will be the Irish’s last test in a difficult non-conference slate and should provide an important final tune-up before the team begins their quest to defend their ACC title earned in last seasons’ tournament.
