Though it’s hard to believe with Atlantic Coast Conference play hardly underway, Notre Dame men’s soccer just concluded its toughest stretch of scheduling for the entire 2024 season. The Irish are 1-0-2 after hosting Akron on opening night, traveling to Indiana and opening conference action at Louisville. To end the stretch, Notre Dame picked up its first win with a 2-1 Friday defeat of the 15th-ranked Cardinals.
Now, the Irish look ahead and see only one road match on their schedule for the next month and a half. That time frame includes a six-game homestand featuring consequential matchups against soccer powerhouses Stanford and Clemson. The homestand starts on Tuesday with the first all-time meeting between Notre Dame and Duquesne.
Introducing the Dukes
A solid mid-major program in the Atlantic 10, Duquesne has finished with a record of .500 or better in each of the last five full seasons. The Pittsburgh-based Dukes are in their 12th season under head coach Chase Brooks. Last season, they went 8-7-1, blowing out ACC foe Virginia Tech before losing to a more familiar one in Pitt.
This season, the Dukes are already halfway to their 2023 win total with a record of 4-0. Duquesne has beaten Seton Hill, Canisius, Xavier and Niagara, conceding only two total goals in the process. The third win, a 1-0 defeat of the Musketeers, came on the road against a Xavier team that won the Big East Tournament championship and reached the NCAA Tournament a year ago. Each of Duquesne’s last two wins have finished in 1-0 scores, improving the Dukes to 24-8 in one-goal decisions since 2021.
Much of the credit for Duquesne’s early success belongs to the forward-goalkeeper combination of Maxi Hopfer and Zoltan Nagy. Hopfer, Duquesne’s lone representative on the 2024 All-Atlantic 10 Preseason Team, has a history of massive production in the attacking third. In 2021, he posted 28 points on 11 goals in 18 games, landing on the All-Atlantic 10 First Team. Injuries denied Hopfer a single point last year, but he has returned to full capacity with four points in four games to start 2024. The Austrian currently ranks seventh in program history with 50 career points.
In goal, fellow senior Nagy is holding down the Duquesne starting role for a second consecutive season. Last year, he started all 18 games for the Dukes, pacing the Atlantic 10 with 88 saves and ranking second with a .772 save percentage. Nagy enters the Notre Dame match with back-to-back clean sheets and 13 saves made during those two contests.
Outside of those two players, midfielders Jaxon Ervin and Ashton Jell have stepped forward to advance the Duquesne offense. Ervin, a redshirt sophomore, leads the Dukes with seven points and two goals and three assists. Jell, a junior, already has two game-winning goals, the first two goals of his college career.
Balanced attack leading the Irish
Not since Jack Lynn’s final season of 2021 has Notre Dame possessed a goal-producer heads and shoulders above his teammates. That trend has continued into the early part of the season, as the Irish have five goals from five different scorers to start 2024.
On Friday, senior midfielder Bryce Boneau opened his seasonal account for the first time along with freshman midfielder Jacob Bartlett. Boneau currently leads the Irish with three points as the team’s captain, while Bartlett’s tally marked the first by a Notre Dame freshman this season.
Should anyone buck Notre Dame’s offensive balance, look for senior forward Matthew Roou to make a move. Identified as the leader of the Irish attack entering the season, Roou posted 10 goals and scored the first of Notre Dame’s five this year. At Louisville, he generated several prime chances, firing off three shots for the second time in three games. With 14 points in his last six non-conference, regular-season games at home, Roou certainly has a shot at breaking through against Duquesne.
Notre Dame’s match against the Dukes is scheduled for Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Alumni Stadium.
