NC State men’s soccer suffers second half collapse against Notre Dame

After a strong start, NC State men’s soccer ran out of gas and fell to No. 15 Notre Dame in a 3-1 loss at Dail Soccer Stadium in Raleigh.

Entering the match, the Wolfpack (6-5, 1-3 ACC) held an undefeated home record, but faced its toughest challenger to date in one of the ACC’s best — the Fighting Irish (6-1-3, 3-0-1 ACC). 

Neither team took control early with both defenses coming out sharp. The first shot of the evening, which came from Notre Dame, didn’t come until 12 minutes in. The Fighting Irish continued to push the Pack’s defense afterwards, but found no success. 

“I thought in the first half we were really gritty, really tough without the ball, we’ve got to make sure that we can do that for longer windows,” said head coach George Kiefer. “And then clean up our stuff on the ball a bit more, just keep working on the little things.”

After pushing the ball upfield, the red-and-white earned a corner kick. Junior midfielder Will Buete found junior forward Luke Hille, who perfectly headed the ball into the back of the net. The Pack protected the pitch and entered halftime with a lead over one of the best teams in the country. 

“I’m just trying to stay locked into doing what I can do [to score] and I’ve had a good little rhythm going,” Hille said. “Another [goal] tonight but obviously dropped a couple points that we felt like we had in our hands.” 

The lead didn’t last long —the Fighting Irish quickly struck after halftime, scoring just four minutes into the half. After playing its best in the first half, the Wolfpack began to slow down.

“I think we just lost focus on the little details, defensively we got broken down,” Hille said. “A few plays that were right on top of our box, we tried to do something other than what we did in the first half… it broke down a little for us and they were able to capitalize.”

Notre Dame wasn’t finished and relentlessly attacked NC State’s defense. Tired and frustrated, the Wolfpack committed a careless penalty to set Notre Dame up for a penalty kick that could take the lead. Notre Dame defender Paddy Burns capitalized, frustrating the home side even more. 

Once Notre Dame gained the lead, the Wolfpack struggled to get the ball out of its own half. The constant high press made it difficult for NC State to develop any plays on the attacking side of the field, and as the second half churned on, Notre Dame started dominating possession.

“I felt like on the ball tonight we turned it over a bit too much and they’re a very good team,” Kiefer said. “…The goals that we gave up — [were] just really simple things that you just have to take care of a little bit better.”

As NC State failed to get things back together offensively, the Fighting Irish continued their red-hot half with a third goal to ice off the Wolfpack. NC State did not punch back during the second half and Notre Dame snapped the red-and-white’s home winning streak with a 3-1 finish. 

The Pack will return to Dail Soccer Stadium  on Friday, Oct. 6 to take on Wake Forest in another ACC matchup. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.