Orange Hosts Notre Dame in ACC Opener

Game #5 - #20 Syracuse (4-0-0, 0-0-0 ACC) vs. #4 Notre Dame (2-1-1, 0-0-0 ACC)
Game Details	Saturday, Sept. 13 - 7 p.m. \| Syracuse, N.Y. SU Soccer Stadium \| Weather
Game Coverage	TV: TWCS \| ESPN3: Video Cuse.com: Live Stats Twitter: @SUMensSoccer
Notre Dame Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Stats \| Guide \| Notes
Syracuse Links	News \| Roster \| Schedule \| Stats \| Guide \| Notes

SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- The 20th-ranked Syracuse men's soccer team (4-0-0, 0-0-0 ACC) welcomes reigning national champion No. 4 Notre Dame (2-1-1, 0-0-0 ACC) to the SU Soccer Stadium on Saturday, Sept. 13 for a 7 p.m. match. The game is the conference opener for both teams, and marks the third straight year the Orange has hosted the Fighting Irish.

Admission for all Syracuse soccer matches is free. The first 500 fans in attendance Saturday will receive Orange Nation pom-poms. In addition, an autographed New England Revolution jersey will be raffled off at halftime.

The game will be televised live locally on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel and available to a nation-wide audience on ESPN3.

AGAINST THE PREVIOUS YEAR'S CHAMPS
The game marks the fifth time since the NCAA began sponsoring men's soccer in 1959 the Orange will face the reigning national champion. Syracuse won one of those four previous encounters, beating 1981 champ Connecticut, 3-1, during the 1982 season.

Orange vs. Previous Year's NCAA Champion
1978 – Hartwick 2, SU 0
1982 – SU 3, Connecticut 1
1997 – St. John's 5, SU 0
2001 – Connecticut 3, SU 1
2014 – ???

HOT START
With four straight wins to start the 2014 campaign, the Orange is off to its best start since 2005. The team is looking for its first 5-0-0 start in program history. In 2005, the Orange began the season 4-0-1 before finishing 7-8-4. This year represents the first time Syracuse has ever opened a season with four consecutive shutouts. The four straight clean sheets are two shy of the school record (6) set in 1980.

NO GOAL(S)!
As of the most recent NCAA statistics release on Sept. 8, Syracuse is one of 10 teams in the country that has not allowed a goal in 2014. The others: Cal-Bakersfield, Campbell, Columbia, Creighton, Valparaiso, Loyola-Chicago, Michigan State, Penn State and Louisville.

HOSTING THE NATION'S BEST
Notre Dame represents the eighth team ranked in the top 10 of the NSCAA poll to visit the SU Soccer Stadium since 2003. The Irish are No. 4 in this week's poll. The last time Syracuse hosted a top-five team was last year's matchup with Notre Dame, when the fourth-ranked Fighting Irish came to town on Sept. 13, 2013.

Syracuse's last win against a top-10 program was a 3-2, overtime triumph at No. 8 Rutgers in 2001. Its most recent home victory over a top-10 foe was in 1996 when it defeated No. 2 St. John's, 2-0.

SCOUTING THE FIGHTING IRISH
The Irish are 2-1-1 on the season after finishing 17-1-6 in 2013 on their way to winning the ACC Championship and eventually beating Maryland, 2-1, to claim its first NCAA title. Notre Dame returns nine starters from last year's squad, as well as 72 percent of its goals scored. The Irish were picked as the preseason favorite to win the ACC title again in 2014 in a poll of the league's coaches.

Graduate student Leon Brown and junior Evan Panken lead the Irish in the final third. Brown has two goals and four points, while Panken has three points on one goal and one assist. Nick Besler is one of the top midfielders in the nation. Besler is the younger brother of Matt Besler, one of the starting defenders for the U.S. Men's National Team at the 2014 World Cup. Nick was named to the Hermann Trophy Watch List (national player of the Year) prior to the start of the season.

Graduate student goalkeeper Patrick Wall has played all 380 minutes for the Irish, recording nine saves while allowing three goals.

Coach Bobby Clark is in his 14th season at the helm in South Bend. Clark has won an impressive 66.2 percent of his matches in his 30-year college coaching career. He holds a 487-228-85 overall record, including a 172-70-42 mark with the Irish. Since Clark took over, the Irish have been ranked in the NSCAA final top-25 poll 11 times in 13 seasons.

THE NOTRE DAME SERIES
The meeting is the 16th between SU and Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish own an 11-2-2 series advantage. While SU's last win against Notre Dame came on Oct. 11, 1997, the series has been competitive as five of the last eight matches have been decided by one goal or fewer, including four overtime games and two draws.

UP NEXT ...
Syracuse welcomes Central New York neighbor Cornell to the SU Soccer Stadium on Tuesday, Sept. 16. Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m. between the Orange and Big Red on Time Warner Cable SportsChannel.

Syracuse University Athletics

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