The NC State men’s soccer team fell to Notre Dame 1-0 on Friday, Sept. 17 in the team’s first road test of the year.
The Wolfpack (4-3, 0-2 ACC) and Fighting Irish (2-3-1, 1-0-1 ACC) duked it out for 85 scoreless minutes before Notre Dame’s Dawson McCartney broke the deadlock by finishing off a Daniel Russo cutback.
The opening 45 minutes was a tightly contested, but largely uneventful, affair. The Fighting Irish narrowly shot the Wolfpack 5-4, but neither team was able to register a shot on target in the opening half.
While the Wolfpack was strong at the back and kept possession well, it struggled to break down Notre Dame with that possession.
After the break, both the Pack and Fighting Irish started to go more direct and the hosts found some early success doing so, but redshirt senior keeper Leon Krapf and the Wolfpack defense were able to withstand the early second-half flurry.
In the 71st minute, senior forward Kuda Muskwe almost gave NC State a lead, but his shot flew off the underside of the cross bar. Muskwe’s near-miss came during a flurry of set-piece chances for the Pack.
The loss drops the Wolfpack to 0-2 in ACC play and while the earlier loss to Clemson, one of the best teams in the country, isn’t a bad loss, the loss to Notre Dame doesn’t look good on the resume, as the Fighting Irish were picked to finish last in the Coastal Division prior to the season.
The Pack has a chance to bounce back on Friday, Sept. 24 when it hosts Wake Forest at Dail Soccer Field. The match is set to kick off at 7 p.m.
