Notre Dame College men’s soccer was able to get their second shutout of the young season as they took down Wheeling Jesuit University, 1-0 at home on Wednesday afternoon.
The Falcons (2-1, 1-0 MEC) beat the Cardinals twice last season and have not lost to WJU since the 2014 MEC Tournament. The Cardinals (1-1-1, 0-1) have gone scoreless in two of their three games so far this season.
The only goal came nearly ten minutes into the game. Senior Reymar Klochko was able to find the back of the net with 35:20 remaining, on an assist by junior David Torralba Perez as NDC started the game very aggressively on offense.
That aggressiveness continued throughout the game as the Falcons ended up taking 14 shots as a team, their new season high. Prior to this game, Notre Dame had taken a combined 16 shots over the first two contests.
“Today we moved the ball quicker and created better opportunities for our attacking players to get on the ball,” head coach Carl Nolan said. “We established a good tempo of play in the first half, but lost that a little. That’s something that we will work hard on improving.”
At the end of the first half, Wheeling Jesuit had a chance at getting their first goal with 4:44 remaining as junior Jordan Simpson saw his shot go over the goal following a corner kick by junior Martin Minuzzi.
In the second half, from the 65 minute mark and the 67 minute mark, senior Leonardo Paiva took three shots, two on goal. Paiva also had a shot on goal with 6:03 remaining. Wheeling Jesuit went on the attack between the 79′ mark and the 82′ mark, with three consecutive shots, two were blocked and one went high.
Paiva took seven of Notre Dame’s 14 shots including four shots on goal but saw his streak of 22 consecutive regular season games with a goal, come to an end. Klochko also recorded four shots. Sophomore Daniele De Angelis had one save as he helped keep WJU off the scoreboard.
Nolan was happy with how the defense approached the game.
“Defensively, we kept things simple,” he said. “We won our battles and found our midfielders feet. I was really pleased with the back four today.”
Wheeling Jesuit had a tough time keeping the ball on Notre Dame’s side of the field. The Cardinals only took six shots with one of them being tallied as a shot on goal.
Six different Cardinals took a shot and Minuzzi had the only shot on goal. Tyler Shotwell stopped the ball several times for six saves, but allowed a goal. Shotwell, who just won MEC Defensive Player of the Week, now has 19 saves on the season.
The Falcons will go back out on the road to California, Pa. to take on California University of Pennsylvania on September 10. The match is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
