Notre Dame College fell to No. 20 Mercyhurst University 2-1 in overtime, on Sunday afternoon as Leonardo Paiva scored the lone goal for NDC in the first half.
The Falcons (1-1) lose their first game of the season and haven’t beaten MU since 2015. With the win, the Lakers (1-1) bounce back after their opening day loss to the University of Charleston.
Mercyhurst had the ball on Notre Dame’s side of the field early in the game as they had five shots, two shots on goal, within the first 15 minutes of the game. The Falcons did not take their first shot until 13:13 remained in the first half.
NDC was able to put the ball in the back of the net first as Paiva scored a goal on a penalty kick with 7:41 to go before the half. Mercyhurst responded quickly when Fjodor van Kippersluis, who came on as a substitution earlier in the first half, scored a goal. The MU assist on the goal was credited to Hady Sarr.
At the halftime break, the two teams were tied 1-1 while both goalies had two saves and both teams took three shots on goal.
In the second half, both teams came out aggressively. By the 14:08 mark, Mercyhurst had taken nine shots and Notre Dame took two. Between the 10:50-mark and the 9:30-mark in the second half, NDC had three consecutive corner kicks, but could not put the ball in the net. With 1:10 remaining in regulation, Paiva was able to get another look at the goal, but his shot was saved by the Lakers goalkeeper Martin Jarc.
In the first ten minute half of overtime, Sarr scored the game winning goal on an assist by van Kippersluis.
“The overtime period was a tough situation to handle, but it has now become an experience that we must learn from,” head coach Carl Nolan said. “We will be back better and stronger from this experience.”
Paiva had a goal and took four shots. He has now scored in 22 consecutive regular season games. Daniele De Angelis had five saves for NDC.
“The team showed tremendous effort today, but we lost the game in switching off for two moments,” Nolan stated. “That is something we cannot afford to do at this level.”
Connor Wilkinson took four shots, two of them were on goal. Sarr had a goal on five shots, van Kippersluis took four shots and had a goal and Shams El-Akabawy took three shots. Jarc recorded four saves.
Notre Dame will play their home opener against Wheeling Jesuit University on September 6. The game is scheduled to start at 4 p.m.
