Notre Dame Nips Orange, 1-0

Saturday, September 13

SU Soccer Stadium

7 p.m.

Syracuse University

4-1-0, 0-1-0ACC

Notre Dame

3-1-1, 1-0-0ACC

Notre Dame

Syracuse

9/13/2014 10:28:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Box Score

Record crowd on hand for match against reigning NCAA champs

Score By Period	1st	2nd	Final
Notre Dame	0	1	1
Syracuse	0	0	0
Box Score \| Photos Cuse TV: Highlights \| Coach McIntyre Interview \| Player Interviews Sept. 13, 2014 \| SU Soccer Stadium / Syracuse N.Y. \| Attendance: 2,442

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – No. 20 Syracuse (4-1-0, 0-1-0 ACC) fell to defending national champion No. 4 Notre Dame (3-1-1, 1-0-0 ACC) by the score of 1-0 in front of a record crowd of 2,442 Saturday, Sept. 13 at the SU Soccer Stadium.

The Irish capitalized on a free kick in the 75th minute that was created on a counterattack after a 'Cuse scoring chance. It was the only blemish for SU keeper Alex Bono, who recorded a season-high seven saves in the match.

"At this level, it's the small details that make the difference," said head coach Ian McIntyre. "They had some chances. We had some quality chances. I give our guys a lot of credit for keeping the intensity until the final whistle. We had done a great job to nullify their restarts up until the goal. I'm certainly disappointed right now, but when we reflect upon it later, we played a very quality game."

On the deciding play, Notre Dame's Jon Gallagher got behind the Orange defense and drew a second yellow card on Skylar Thomas with 15:59 remaining. Down a man with Thomas out of the game, Syracuse allowed its first goal of the year on the restart. Notre Dame's Patrick Hodan lofted a cross into the box, connecting with Brandon Aubrey who headed the ball into the left side of the net for the only goal of the contest.

Following Aubrey's strike, Syracuse increased its intensity and was able to create numerous opportunities to equalize the match in the last 10 minutes, despite playing with only nine field players. The Orange recorded two shots and four corner kicks in the latter stages of the match, but could not tie the game.

Oyvind Alseth had the best scoring opportunity in the match for Syracuse. He ripped a hard shot from outside the box that beat Irish keeper Patrick Wall, but hit the post and deflected out of play. Minutes later Notre Dame notched the deciding goal.

Sophomore Alex Halis and freshman Julian Buescher were dangerous throughout the match. Buescher had three shots, two of which found their way on frame, and Halis registered a pair of shots in 53 minutes of action off the bench.

Bono was solid between the posts for the Orange. In the first half, he had three saves. Then he opened the second half with a phenomenal diving save on a deflected shot from inside the box by Vince Cicciarelli that kept the game scoreless.

Wall totaled three saves for Notre Dame to earn the shutout.

Syracuse held a 13-12 advantage in shots for the match and set an SU Soccer Stadium record with 15 corner kicks (10 in the second half).

The Orange returns to action on Tuesday, Sept. 16 when it hosts Central New York neighbor Cornell at the SU Soccer Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Time Warner Cable Sportschannel.

Match Notes: Saturday night's attendance was 639 more than the previous stadium record of 1,803 established last season versus Virginia … Aubrey's goal ended Bono's shutout streak at 434:05, the second-longest stretch of consecutive minutes played by an Orange keeper without conceding a goal in team history.