LOUISVILLE — The Notre Dame Fighting Irish men’s soccer team is heading for the College Cup final for the second time in program history, defeating Oregon State 1-0 on Friday night at Lynn Family Stadium.
Notre Dame’s other appearance came during the 2013 season, which saw the Irish capture their first national championship in program history.
Eno Nto scored the winner for the Irish in the 51st minute with Wyatt Lewis picking up the assist.
Notre Dame’s defense turned in a masterclass on the way to the clean sheet. Bryan Dowd made four saves in the contest and Josh Ramsey made a number of huge defensive plays to help the Irish.
The Irish will play in the title match against No. 9 Clemson on Monday, Dec. 11 at Lynn Family Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky. The match will air on ESPNU. Buy tickets here.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Notre Dame and Oregon State played a scoreless opening 45 minutes of play, as both teams grew into the match in the opening stages of the contest.
The best chance for the Irish came in the 32nd minute as Matthew Roou found space in the box. His shot was blocked into the path of Daniel Russo, who fired a shot towards the near post but the Oregon State keeper went to ground to make the save.
The Irish backline put out a number of fires over the course of the half but managed to keep it 0-0 heading into the halftime break.
Notre Dame started the second half on the front foot and found the opener in the 51st minute. Wyatt Lewis did a great job of picking out Nto in the box, who fired in a clinical finish just inside the near post to put the Irish on top 1-0.
Josh Ramsey came up with a huge defensive sequence in the 68th minute, saving a shot off the line and then somehow keeping the ball out of the back of the net in a scrum close to the goal before Dowd finally collected it to end the threat.
The Irish got stuck in for the last 22 minutes, putting out fires all over the pitch to send the team to the final for the second time in program history.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the match…
“We knew it was going to be a hard game, obviously overall we’re just super proud of the team and how they handled the 90 minutes. We were a little disappointed at half time, we felt we could have played a little bit better, a little bit smarter in the first half. The team responded incredibly well to start the second half obviously with this guy (Eno Nto) scoring an unbelievably good goal, but I just…