SOUTH BEND, Ind. — On a night when No. 5 Notre Dame honored its seniors with a prematch ceremony, it was a junior who stole the show with one of the greatest performances in front of goal in program history.
Eno Nto scored a career-high four goals in Notre Dame’s 6-0 rout of No. 20 Pitt to close out the regular season with its first undefeated ACC record (6-0-2) in program history. The win wrapped up the No. 1 overall seed for the ACC Tournament.
The Irish are the first team to go undefeated in league play since Wake Forest did so in 2017 and Notre Dame becomes the first team in the ACC Coastal Division to ever accomplish the feat.
Matthew Roou and Wyatt Borso also found the back of the net for the Irish in the attacking masterclass, while Bryce Boneau recorded a career-high three assists and Wyatt Lewis and Nolan Spicer each dished out a career-high two assists.
The clean sheet was Notre Dame’s ninth of the season and eighth for senior goalkeeper Bryan Dowd, who was unbothered for the majority of the evening.
🎩 AND 1
A performance to remember from Eno Nto, as he has FOUR goals on the evening!#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/rrfpXczj3s
— Notre Dame Men’s Soccer (@NDMenSoccer) October 28, 2023
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Irish wasted little time getting the scoring started, as Nto scored the opener in the 10th minute to put the team on top 1-0. Boneau dispossessed a Pitt defender at the edge of the area and found Nto, who slotted home his finish.
Notre Dame continued to pressure the visitors and managed to double their lead in the 39th minute before the halftime break. Spicer slid a pass to Roou, who finished while falling down between two defenders to put the Irish up 2-0 heading into the halftime break.
The Panthers managed to hold Notre Dame scoreless in the first 17 minutes of the second half and then the floodgates burst open.
Nto scored his second of the evening after redirecting Boneau’s effort past the Pitt keeper to make it 3-0 in the 63rd minute.
Less than two minutes later Nto completed his hat trick in a beautiful attacking buildup which was triggered by Boneau. The midfielder played a perfect pass down the right flank to KK Baffour, who centered to Nto and the striker calmly shot past the oncoming keeper for his third goal of the night.
In the 73rd minute Nto put the exclamation mark on his evening. Lewis won a tackle in Notre Dame’s attacking half and found Spicer in space. The freshman connected with Nto on the edge of…