Notre Dame Men’s Soccer tops Omaha 2-0 in Exhibition

     Omaha, NE – The University of Nebraska at Omaha men’s soccer team kicked off the 2017 season with its annual South Omaha Classic. The Notre Dame Fighting Irish brought in a top ten team to Al F. Caniglia Field to face off against the Mavericks. Omaha came out aggressive early, controlling the game for the first 10 minutes. In that time, sophomore midfielder Ethan Bowman was able to get a shot on goal that wide left.

     The Irish started off a tad rusty, but once the Irish got their feet under them they were able to take control for the rest of the first period. Then it began to get a little physical. There were several instances of pushing and shoving, but the referees were able to take control of the game after giving yellow cards to both UNO’s Seth Rinderknecht and Notre Dame’s Matt Habrowski. In the 25th minute, Hermann Award candidate Jon Gallagher scored the first goal for Notre Dame with a chip shot over the goal keeper’s head assisted.

     As the period ended, a very unfortunate event happened when Irish goalkeeper Chris Hubbard was upended and looked to have landed on his head. He was carried out on a stretcher and taken to the nearest hospital. The Irish started where they left off in the second period, taking full control of possession for the first 15 minutes. in the 61st minute, Jon Gallagher got his second goal of the match on a through ball. That seemed to fire up the Mavericks as they took control of possession for the rest of the second period.

     UNO was unable to score a goal because of Notre Dame’s Sean Dedrick pressure on the Maverick forwards. The Mavs were able to get a few shots on goal but Ryan Krutz, who came in for injured Chris Hubbard, ended the night with two spectacular saves and solidified the shutout for the Irish. Even though the Mavericks weren’t able to win this game, this was a good measuring stick for them on the young season.

     Notre Dame will be one of the toughest opponents UNO will face this year. With all the physical play, the key stat of the night was the 31 combined fouls for both teams. The Irish had seven more shots and three more shots on goal than the Mavs. The next game for UNO will be the regular season home opener against Grand Canyon University on August 25th at 6 p.m. at Caniglia Field.