Men's college soccer: Notre Dame uses first-half goal to stun No. 2 Wake Forest

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Notre Dame earned a signature win on Saturday evening, defeating No. 2 Wake Forest on the road by a final score of 1-0 in the team’s final road match of the regular season. The Irish are the first team to defeat the Demon Deacons in a regular-season ACC match at Spry Stadium since the Irish also accomplished the feat in 2013.

Patrick Coleman’s magnificent strike in the 21st minute proved to be the match winner. Senior Duncan Turnbull made five saves to record the team’s sixth clean sheet of the season.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Irish created the first real scoring chance of the evening, as Ian Aschieris played Jack Lynn in on goal in the 17th minute with a flicked header but the sophomore’s low shot was inches wide of finding the far post.

Notre Dame produced the breakthrough goal in the 21st minute to take a 1-0 lead in the match. Coleman collected the ball on the right of the area and cut into the box and fired a perfect strike just inside the far post to give the Irish the early advantage.

🚀🚀🚀

What a way to score the 1st goal of your career! Patrick Coleman gets the ball onto his left foot and hits a sublime strike inside the far post!

💻: https://t.co/fIEIPQc9uX
📊: https://t.co/Friqd5W5Jh#GoIrish☘️ pic.twitter.com/mPAov9IzhD

— ND Men's Soccer (@NDMenSoccer) October 26, 2019

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The Irish defense stood tall for the remainder of the first half and Notre Dame took the one-goal advantage into the halftime break.

The hosts nearly leveled the match in the 52nd minute, as Bruno Lapa fired a shot towards the near post but Turnbull was up to the challenge, making a diving save to keep the Demon Deacons off the board.

The Irish were masterful in the second half of putting out fires all over the pitch, allowing Wake Forest to have the majority of possession but stopping the hosts from creating many great scoring chances. Notre Dame went on to win by a final score of 1-0.

NOTRE DAME STAT OF THE MATCH

The win over No. 2 Wake Forest is the highest ranked victory Notre Dame has recorded since knocking off No. 1 Wake Forest on the road on Nov. 11, 2015 in the ACC Championship semifinals.

HEAD COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE

On the team’s performance…
“Obviously a great win. Coming down to Wake Forest is a tough place to play, they are a great team. I thought it was a great combination of competitiveness, toughness, work and skill. That’s what we want to be and at this time of the year you want to be willing to do anything to get to play together another week.”

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On Patrick Coleman’s goal…
“It was an awesome goal. I had a great view of it. We know he is a great one-on-one player, which is why we put him in those situations. He just made space and hit a great drive into the side netting.”

On the defensive performance…
“I think the defense was good and composed. In the first half we had a couple of moments when we were caught in between in transition but in the second half we did a better job. We were smarter, we got out wide quicker and blocked crosses. It was a really smart defensive effort because you know you are going to have to defend against teams like Wake Forest and I thought we did a good job.”