AKRON, Ohio — The No. 15 Fighting Irish men’s soccer team came away with a 0-0 draw on the road against No. 4 Akron on Tuesday evening at FirstEnergy Stadium. Notre Dame now has a record of 4-1-3 on the year.
The story of the night for Notre Dame was the play of senior goalkeeper Bryan Dowd, who turned in the best performance of his Fighting Irish career. The shot-stopper made a career-high 12 saves to keep the clean sheet intact.
The shutout marks Notre Dame’s fourth of the season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Notre Dame was under duress for most of the first half, as the Zips’ attack created all the chances in the opening 45 minutes of play. Fortunately for the Irish, Dowd was up to the task, making eight saves in the first half to keep the match scoreless heading into the halftime break.
The second stanza was much more evenly played, as the Irish settled into the match. Although Notre Dame was unable to generate great scoring chances, it did a much better job at limiting the hosts at creating shots. After 90 minutes of action, the match ended scoreless and the points were shared.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the performance…
“Overall I’m pleased with the resilience the team showed and the response as Akron was very good. Credit to them, they are a top team and well-deserving of the ranking they have right now but I loved how our team got tougher tonight. They hung in together. Obviously Bryan Dowd had another great performance for us and I’m overall pleased with the fight and the toughness the team showed tonight.”
On the play of Dowd…
“He was locked in from minute one. Sometimes that can be hard to do and they created some good moments early and he was ready right away which is a huge credit to him.”
On getting a draw on the road against a top-five team…
“Hope this makes us a little bit tougher and we get a little bit stronger in our togetherness and we look to build on this.”
UP NEXT
The Irish return to South Bend for a pivotal ACC matchup against Virginia at 8 p.m. ET on Friday, Sept. 22 at Alumni Stadium. Notre Dame fans are encouraged to wear green as part of the Irish Wear Green initiative for the weekend. The match will air on ACCN.
FOLLOW THE IRISH ON SOCIAL MEDIA
For a behind the scenes look at the Notre Dame men’s soccer program follow the Irish on Twitter (@NDMenSoccer), Instagram (@ndmensoccer), Facebook (/NDMenSoccer) and TikTok (@ndmensoccer).