Last Sunday was a full-circle moment for Notre Dame men’s soccer coach Chad Riley.
His Irish team had battled for 110 minutes, and now would see the fate of their season decided by a penalty kick shootout. Riley sent his team out to line up, perhaps having flashbacks to his own playing days.
Nearly 20 years to last Sunday, Riley’s own Notre Dame playing career came to a close in the exact same situation. With a trip to the program’s first NCAA quarterfinal on the line, the Irish went to penalty kicks against Michigan at the old Alumni Field, roughly 100 yards from the touchline Riley now occupies. Riley scored in the shootout, but his efforts would prove futile. A pair of saves from Wolverine goalkeeper Peter Dzubay ended Notre Dame’s season and Riley’s collegiate career.
Two decades later, the Irish pulled through in the NCAA round of 16 against Western Michigan. A save by senior goalkeeper Bryan Dowd and a composed shooting performance proved enough for Riley’s squad.
One key difference from 2003? Notre Dame will now head to its sixth NCAA quarterfinal, not first. Three of those six quarterfinal appearances have come under Riley’s tutelage, the sign of a coach who’s starting to build his own legacy on the Alumni Stadium touchline.
The shadow of Bobby Clark, Riley’s own coach at Notre Dame and his predecessor in the Alumni dugout, looms large in South Bend soccer lore. Clark coached the Irish for 17 seasons, every one of which ending with a winning record. He delivered the program its first and only national championship in 2013.
Clark’s eventual retirement segued nicely into the hiring of Riley, his former player and assistant coach. You’d be hard-pressed to find a man with deeper connections to Notre Dame soccer than Riley. Since the turn of the century, he’s spent a combined 16 years either playing or coaching in South Bend.
“It’s my club, right?” said Riley. “It’s my place … We take a lot of pride, try not to put more pressure on ourselves, but I’m a Notre Dame guy through and through.”
But Riley is more than “a Notre Dame guy.” He’s also a highly accomplished coach that’s dead set on bringing his alma mater back to the top of the college soccer world. Six years into his tenure, the fruits of such labor have begun to emerge.
His first NCAA quarterfinal appearance as a coach came in his first season on the Alumni Stadium touchline. He’d go on to lead the Irish to a second-ever College Cup appearance in 2021. That same year, he helped Notre Dame capture its first ACC Tournament title.
Though that 2021 campaign represented a high-water mark for Riley’s tenure in South Bend, it set the table for an up-and-down 2022. Transitioning from the loss of a highly influential group of graduated seniors, the Irish missed the NCAA tournament for just the third time since 2000.
Such a strange 2022 season prompted some soul-searching from Riley and his team over the course of the offseason. There had been signs of promise, including a four-match unbeaten run to close out the regular season. But there had seemed to be an abundance of missed opportunities as well. Notre Dame knew they had pieces. But they had to figure out how to get them to click to reach their potential.
“You’re always reflecting, growing and evolving things,” Riley said. “Not a lot was broken, but it was just continuing to grow. At Notre Dame, you’re always going to have four-year programs. Guys are hopefully going to continue to develop over time. I think this is a good example of a lot of hard work from January to now.”
The development and evolution of the Irish over the offseason was quickly evident. Notre Dame started the season on a five-match unbeaten run and would go on to finish its ACC regular season slate undefeated.
It’s difficult to not draw a few parallels between this year’s Irish and the 2021 squad. They’re defensively sound and can win games in a variety of ways. Veterans in the midfield keep the team ticking. Most importantly, they respond well to adversity. These are the traits that Riley has built the program around during his tenure as coach, and the ones he thinks are most evident in the team’s biggest games.
“The game last weekend kind of summed up the ideal of what we want to be as a team,” said Riley about the win against Western Michigan. “Never give in, never stop, whether you’re on top, whether you’re down. You just keep going and you really love one another.”
Now, with Riley looking to guide the Irish to a third-ever College Cup, another familiar foe stands in his way. On Saturday, Notre Dame will welcome Indiana — perhaps the program’s greatest historical rival — to Alumni Stadium. And it’s been a rivalry that’s more often than not favored the Hoosiers. The Irish haven’t won against their in-state compatriots since 2016.
The last time Notre Dame and Indiana squared off in the NCAA Tournament was Riley’s first tournament loss with the Irish. Notre Dame has beaten the Hoosiers in South Bend just four times in program history, including a 1-0 overtime win during Riley’s senior season as a player, with the current boss assisting the game-winning goal.
“There’s a lot of mutual respect between the programs,” Riley said. “Every game, we know it’s going to be tight, be a battle. As competitors, you’re just excited to play teams like that.”
One of four current Notre Dame coaches to have also played for the Irish, Riley knows the importance of notching a rivalry win in the NCAA Tournament as much as anyone. With two College Cup trips in three seasons on the line, Notre Dame might be on the doorstep of taking another step forward as a program. And the Irish have one of their own leading the way.
Sign up for our Observer Sports newsletter!Have an Irish sports question? Ask it for our Observer Sports mailbag!
Read More
Trending
