On Tuesday night, the Notre Dame men’s soccer team drew for the third time in four matches to start the season. This time, the Irish finished with a 1-1 tie at home against Duquesne. With the result, both sides remained unbeaten — Duquesne at 4-0-1 and Notre Dame at 1-0-3.
Despite the level score, the Irish dominated the match, outshooting the Dukes by a 21-3 margin and putting eight shots on target. Notre Dame struck first via sophomore midfielder Nolan Spicer in the 65th minute, only for Duqeusne’s Dakota Jonke to steal a penalty-kick goal in the 85th.
“It’s one of those ones that’s hard to process because of the last few minutes. But I do think it’s hard to deny — a lot of really good stuff. It’s a good team that, you know, posed a problem we hadn’t seen this year,” Irish head coach Chad Riley said. “I thought they were organized, they were committed to getting players behind the ball, which made it difficult. And then in those moments, you’re looking for a mistake, which happens when you’re kind of on top of the game sometimes. So [we have] lots of things to be pleased with — obviously [we’re] bitterly disappointed not to get three points.”
Though the Irish controlled possession for 69% of the first half, Duquesne emerged with the night’s first real opportunity. Less than two minutes in, a turnover on the Irish back line left Jaxon Ervin with a chance to shoot from distance. Despite starting well off his line, freshman goalkeeper Blake Kelly calmly reached back to reel in his lone save of the contest.
For the first half’s remainder, set pieces generated each side’s closest chances — including one from Notre Dame just before halftime. In the 43rd minute, a free kick from junior midfielder KK Baffour picked out senior forward Matthew Roou and senior defender Kyle Genenbacher right in front of goal. Only a few feet away from the goal line, Roou angled his body to redirect the ball into the net. However, Notre Dame’s celebration lasted only a couple of seconds, as referee J.C. Rivero ruled that Roou stuck his elbow out for a handball. After video review, the call of disallowed goal stood.
The match remained scoreless until the 65th minute, when Spicer opened up his account for the 2024 season. After working a give-and-go play with senior midfielder Bryce Boneau, Spicer pivoted the inside, walking the top of the 18-yard box right to left. As he shook off a defender, Spicer ripped a left-footed shot that bent inside the left post for a 1-0 Irish lead.
Spicer, who didn’t score his first goal of 2023 until November, has three points in four matches on the young season.
“Nolan is a tremendous player, and we want to see more of those moments,” Riley said. “He came in — I think we were getting around the outside so they started to correct themselves to deal with our wide play, and then that created a little space that Nolan was able to find a pocket and a window to finish.”
Potent all night long, Notre Dame’s offense truly opened up after halftime. The Irish tested Zoltan Nagy with seven shots on goal in the second half, attempting 13 of their 21 overall strikes. Riley broke down the adjustments required for Notre Dame to infiltrate a stout and composed Duquesne defensive unit.
“We played with natural wingers, lefty on the left [side] and a righty on the right. And I thought we started to create a lot more chances with getting around the edges, which opened up that space that Nolan [Spicer] eventually kind of slipped through and got the finish,” Riley said. “When you play a 5-4-1, it can be difficult to break down, but I thought the guys’ patience and urgency was great. I think on another night you get a couple more.”
Notre Dame nearly found a second goal in the 77th minute, but Nagy turned aside a Baffour rocket from in tight. Eventually, the clock ticked down to the game’s final five minutes with the Irish still ahead and in position to win a second consecutive match.
Then, all of a sudden, Duquesne earned a penalty kick.
All it took was one ill-timed turnover from sophomore defender Sean McDowd to free Maxi Hopfer, a career 50-point scorer, for a breakaway. Attempting to recover, McDowd knocked Hopfer down from behind in the 18-yard box, generating the penalty kick. Jonke stepped up to the spot and used a simple approach, shooting slow and down the middle to beat the diving Kelly.
After that point, Notre Dame made a frantic push to take back a lost win, but one more Nagy stop against Baffour sealed the deal for a draw. Regardless of their displeasure with the result, the Irish must move on quickly to face their biggest challenge of the year to date. Third-ranked Stanford, a brand new ACC team that just went into Clemson and knocked off the defending national champion, visits South Bend on Saturday. The match sets up as Notre Dame’s first ranked contest of the season.
“We won’t feel sorry for ourselves. We’ll learn from [the Duquesne game], and it doesn’t change anything in our preparation for Stanford,” Riley said. “So we’ll start to look at them – it will be a different game that we’ll be excited about.”
The Irish and Cardinal will kick off at 7 p.m. inside Alumni Stadium on Saturday.
