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NCAA men's tournament Notre Dame puts end to Indiana title reign 2-0 on road.
With temperatures in the freezing range, the Notre Dame defense twice cleared balls of its goal-line in handing the third-ranked Hoosiers' their first NCAA tournament loss at Armstrong Stadium since 1995. The Irish move to the third round against Clemson, which scored three times in the second half for a 3-0 decision over visiting No. 25 North Carolina State this afternoon. "We have beaten (Indiana) before, but that was in the regular season," ND coach Bobby Clark said. "It is nice to make a statement in a game that really meant a lot to both teams. (Indiana is) a terrific team and we take a lot of pride in coming here to play. It takes two teams to make it a game and I thought it was a very exciting game to watch and be a part of." Indiana had gone to Notre Dame and won 3-0 on October 26. Less than two minutes after the Notre Dame defense cleared IU sophomore defender Greg Stevning's header of freshman forward Lee Nguyen's corner kick off its goal-line, the Irish took the lead. Junior midfielder Ian Etherington sent a cross from the right side to the top of six-yard box where senior forward Justin McGeeney headed his fifth goal of the season into the far corner of the net to make it 1-0 with 55:33 elapsed. "I came into halftime and told my teammates, especially the guys in back, if they can hold on, we can win this game," McGeeney said "It is the first time I looked across and saw smiles on our faces, and that we had the confidence we can win this game. We came out and put the pressure on them." IU (13-3-6) nearly tied the game four minutes later when Nguyen received junior striker Jacob Peterson's throw-in and faked past a defender. Nguyen crossed the ball to the far post where senior midfielder Brian Plotkin knocked a header toward the corner, but Irish junior goalkeeper Chris Cahill denied the chance with a quick save. "Once Justin scored, it really put the pressure on (IU)," Lapira said. "I got close to the last defender and Crouse just gave a great ball through to me, and I just had to tap it over the goalie." Notre Dame (12-7-3) quickly expanded its advantage to 2-0 at 61:43. Lapira took a long pass from senior defender Ben Crouse in the middle of the offensive third. Lapira chipped a ball over the outstretched arms of Hoosiers sophomore keeper Chris Munroe with Stevning winding up tangled in the netting after unsuccessfully trying to keep the ball out of the net with a bicycle kick. Lapira nearly had a second tally in the 81st minute when he rang a shot off the goalpost. The Irish defense again came to the rescue in the 86th minute when Nguyen sent a corner kick into a packed penalty area . The ball passed Cahill and bounced a couple of times before Peterson was able to shoot, but a defender was able to clear the ball off the line. "You keep hoping that those missed chances wouldn't come back and haunt us, and they did," IU coach Mike Freitag said. "Tonight, we created more good scoring opportunities than we did when we beat them 3-0 at their place. I thought their goalie was outstanding. I thought we didn't finish well. . . . I thought early in the game, we had a couple great chances that we didn't finish. If just one of those went in, it's a completely different game. Cahill made a big save on Nguyen in the fourth minute to keep the game scoreless. On the ensuing corner kick, Cahill again denied Nguyen by pushing his shot wide. Two minutes later, IU freshman midfielder Brad Ring had a low shot from 18 yards blocked by the Irish defense. ND's first chance came in the 25th minute off a free kick by junior midfielder Greg Dalby from 22 yards out. Crouse put a header across the goal mouth, but Munroe made the diving save. In the 35th minute, it was Cahill's chance to make a save after Plotkin fired a shot from the 18-yard-line. The Hoosiers outshot ND 9-6 in the first half an 16-12 for the game. Cahill made six saves for the Irish to three for Munroe. Do you have a comment on this story or something to say about soccer in general? Send us a letter. |
