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 the area, whose deft first touch played him past the Pitt defender. The forward then rolled his right-footed effort into the net to extend the Irish lead to 5-0.
Notre Dame was not done, as Borso scored one of the best goals of the evening with a blast from just outside the box inside the far post for his first goal of the year to end the regular season in style with the 6-0 victory.
McFARLAND FAMILY MEN’S HEAD SOCCER COACH CHAD RILEY’S TAKE
On the performance…
“I am really proud of the performance. Pitt are a tough team and have won a lot of quality games on the year. I thought Pitt was a good test for us to see what we looked like and the guys stepped up and put in a really good performance tonight.”
On Eno Nto’s four-goal night…
“I honestly don’t think I have ever coached a player who has scored four goals in a game. I know Eno has it in him so it doesn’t surprise me in a lot of ways but I’m so proud of the performance he put in tonight.”
On the team’s pressing…
“Pressure is always going to be key when you play Pitt. They are so good with the ball and they get out of pressure but I thought our team really rose their game and did a really good job pressing and positioning.”
On the crowd…
“The crowd just means so much to the team. It was an unbelievable crowd and environment and it really helped us tonight.”
ND STAT OF THE MATCH
The 6-0 win over No. 20 Pitt marks the largest margin of victory for the Irish over a ranked team in program history.
ND NOTES
- The Irish improve to 21-7-5 against Pitt in the all-time series
- Notre Dame’s win six-goal win over Pitt marked the largest defeat Pitt has suffered since suffering a 7-1 loss to Notre Dame during the 2012 season
- The 20 points the Irish earned in ACC play is the most any ACC team has earned since Wake Forest earned 21 (7-1-0) during the 2018 season.
- Nto’s four-goal performance is the first for a Notre Dame player since Joseph Lapira scored four against Indiana on Sept. 3, 2006
- Nto’s four goals are the most any ACC player has scored in a match this season
- With a goal from Roou and four from Nto, the two forwards are tied for the team lead in goals on the season with 10, marking career highs for both players
- Nto now has 17 goals in his Fighting Irish career
- Boneau’s three assists are the most any Notre Dame player has recorded in a match this season and the midfielder now has five on the season and eight in his career
- Dowd has eight clean sheets on the season, which leads the ACC, and 21 during his four seasons in South Bend
- The Irish are now unbeaten in the last 31 matches they score the opening goal, posting a record of 30-0-1
- After outscoring Pitt 4-0 in the second half on Friday, the Irish have outscored the opposition 20-2 on the season
UP NEXT
The No. 1 seeded Irish received a first round bye for the ACC Tournament and will play the winner of the No. 8 seeded Pitt and No. 9 seeded Louisville matchup at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday, Nov. 5 at Alumni Stadium. The match will air on ACCN.