Saturday night, Notre Dame men’s soccer took the Alumni Stadium field with a shot at its biggest win of the season. As the last remaining unbeaten ACC team in conference play, the 11th-ranked Irish faced No. 14 Duke. Fresh off a 5-3 takedown of defending national champion Syracuse, the Blue Devils came in hot with two extra days of rest.
But Notre Dame rose to the occasion. On a 13th-minute highlight goal by graduate student midfielder Ethan O’Brien, the Irish prevailed 1-0.
“I think it’s huge,” head coach Chad Riley said. “To be fair, Clemson is a top-20 team, Virginia is a top-20 team. So the team’s proven that they can do it. But the pressure that [Duke] put us under at moments tonight – I think the team will take a lot of confidence from it.”
At 7-1-3 overall and 4-0-1 in ACC play, Notre Dame now leads the Coastal Division by five points. The Irish also lead Wake Forest, their opponent on Oct. 20, by three points atop the entire conference.
Saturday’s match opened with tremendous pace. Neither team, particularly Duke, cared for settling into the top-15 contest as its action rapidly shifted from end to end. Forster Ajago, the leading Blue Devil and ACC scorer, sent the night’s first shot high in the third minute.
“We haven’t played a team that gets the ball forward as quickly as they did with two big strikers and an attacking midfielder,” Riley said. “But with that said, I thought we still created some really good moments in the first half to score.”
For the eighth time this season, that score resulted from a Notre Dame set piece. A long throw-in from junior defender Kyle Genenbacher leaped outside the 18 and toward the Irish midfielders. There, O’Brien smashed a volley that rainbowed toward the far post. Not even six-foot-six goalkeeper Julian Eyestone could reach it as it dipped just underneath the crossbar.
“The set pieces are really important in these types of games, especially against a team like Duke,” O’Brien said. “We work on them in training. Me and Bryce [Boneau] and the midfielders usually stay there at the top of the box if it comes back out to us.”
The co-captain’s breathtaking goal marked his first in almost two calendar years. O’Brien, who missed all of 2022 and the first seven games of this season with injuries, described scoring as “the best feeling you could have out there.”
Unsurprisingly, Duke pushed back within two minutes of the goal. Ruben Mesalles Jr., the engine behind the Blue Devil attack early on, bent a wicked cross just left of the penalty spot. Despite tight marking, Ulfur Bjornsson deflected it with power along the ground. But senior goalkeeper Bryan Dowd, on his way to a fifth shutout this season, dove quickly and preserved the lead with his right hand.
After two less dangerous Duke chances, senior defender Paddy Burns nearly doubled the Irish lead in the 40th minute. A poor Blue Devil clearance left the aggressive Burns alone from 15 yards out. But his low drive couldn’t beat Eyestone who made his second of four saves on the night.
Ahead 1-0 at halftime, Notre Dame knew the finish line wouldn’t be easily attainable.
“Against a team like that, they’re very direct and very good up front with two very good strikers,” O’Brien said. “So we know going up early, it’s going to be a long battle. But I’m really proud of the guys – just the way they played and defended really well.”
Despite outshooting the Irish 8-4 and generating four second-half corners, Duke never found the equalizer. Its first opportunity followed one of those corners just 90 seconds into the half. But traffic inside the 18 forced sophomore midfielder Kenan Hot to shoot high and off-target on the second ball.
“We made a couple of adjustments as a group at halftime that the team really applied,” Riley said. “And I thought we controlled the game, bar the last few minutes. And that would have felt a lot different if we could have finished. I thought we had two or three good looks to get the second goal to really finish it off.”
Those looks piled up halfway through the final 45. First, Eyestone pawed away O’Brien’s third shot on goal, a sharp-angled free kick delivered toward the upper right corner of the goal. Senior forward Daniel Russo later cut back into a 15-yard shooting lane but barely missed wide with the left foot. Finally, with 16 minutes remaining, sophomore midfielder Sebastian Green sent a 20-yard free kick just over the bar.
In the game’s waning moments, Duke threatened with its best chances. After another corner, Ajago settled a rebound in close with the right side of the goal wide open. But heavy traffic forced extra precision on his part, and he sent the ball wide. Then, with 103 seconds to play, reigning ACC Offensive Player of the Week Nick Pariano stepped up to a 20-yard free kick. He bested both Notre Dame’s wall and keeper, but not the top of the crossbar.
As the clock hit zero, a physical match ended with a brief altercation. Burns wrapped his arms around Ajago while defending him, inciting the Duke striker to flail wildly and catch Burns with an elbow. Both teams came running to the scene and exchanged light shoves, but nothing more. The players separated, and Notre Dame walked away with its best 11-game start in seven years.
Up next, the Irish will play their final non-conference game of the regular season. The Oberlin Yeomen of the North Coast Athletic Conference visit Alumni Stadium on Tuesday. ACC Network Extra will carry the 7 p.m. kickoff.
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O'Brien's world-class goal pushes Irish to huge home win
Irish junior forward Matthew Roou (21) dribbles the ball during Notre Dame's 3-2 defeat of Clemson at Alumni Stadium on Sep. 9.
