Notre Dame College stepped up defensively in their 1-0 victory over Concord University as the Mountain Lions were unable to record a single shot in the contest, on Sunday afternoon.
The Falcons (4-2, 2-1 MEC), who earned votes this week in the United Soccer Coaches Division II poll, have now shutout three teams already this season. All three of their conference games in 2017 have been decided by one goal. The loss for the Mountain Lions (0-5-1, 0-2) represents the third time that they have been shutout this season. They have never beaten Notre Dame in the history of the series between the two teams.
NDC was able to attack in the first 20 minutes of the game, taking five shots and one of them was a shot on goal. Junior David Torralba was very close to breaking through as he took two shots in four seconds, between 2:40 and 2:44. The first shot was blocked and the next was wide.
Head coach Carl Nolan thought the team actually made the game a little harder than it should have been.
“In the attacking half was where our problems occurred,” he mentioned. “We created a lot of good opportunities, but were wasteful. We must be better in front of goal.”
At the 28 minute mark, the Falcons had a very good opportunity for a goal as Mats Jota booted a corner kick near the goal. Not too long after, Torralba headed the ball in the back of the net with an assist by junior Reece Daly, who had the cross, and sophomore Lewis Norvock who had the header which led to the goal.
In the 40th minute, senior Leonardo Paiva was able to break away and had a one-on-one with the Concord goal keeper Michael Adedigba. Adedigba came out of the box and blocked Paiva’s shot with his hands, which earned him a red card and an ejection.
NDC took ten shots in the second half, but could not get one to sneak by the replacement goalkeeper Kyle Brown. Brown did a nice job as he had to play in over 49 minutes and racked up six saves.
For NDC, Torralba took five shots, two on goal while his teammate Paiva took six shots, with two shots being on goal. Six Falcons took multiple shots in the game.
The Mountain Lions could not get a shot off in the game. Notre Dame stepped up and did not allow CU to control the ball consistently at any time in the contest.
“Defensively, we were quite sound, giving up few half chances,” Nolan said.
Notre Dame will travel to Charleston, W.Va. to take on No. 1 University of Charleston on September 20. The game is scheduled to kick off at 4 p.m.
