FRESNO, Calif. – After 2,500 miles and 110 minutes, Notre Dame found themselves tied with Maine-Fort Kent in the NAIA National Championship Tournament's round of 16.  With each side having tallied two goals, the two teams went to penalties to decide the match.  Nine penalty goals later, the Falcons found themselves on the short end of a 5-4 score, ending their run in the tournament.

Freshman forward Luke Holmes (Oldham, England) scored both of Notre Dame's goals in the game.  The Falcons scored the middle pair of netfinders in regulation time, one in each half.

Maine-Fort Kent (21-0) opened scoring in the sixth minute of the contest when sophomore midfielder Andre Anderson (Manchester, Jamaica) tallied a goal on an assist from freshmen Keith Williams II (Trinidad & Tobago).

Notre Dame answered in the 14th minute, when Luke Holmes scored on a David Manson (Fr./Hartlepool, England) assist.  That closed out the scoring in the first half.

In the second stanza, NDC and Holmes struck first, this time giving the Falcons a 2-1 lead.  Holmes scored the goal on a penalty kick in the 57th minute.

Up 2-1, the Falcons were then dealt a blow, when senior captain Andrew Carr (Preston, England) was sent off with a second yellow card in the 69th minute.  Carr had also been carded in the first.  It wouldn't be even 20 seconds later that the Bengals would answer to tie the game.  UMFK got the game-tying goal from Keith Williams II.  Sophomore midfielder Walford Stewart (St. Elizabeth, Jamaica) garnered the assist.

Neither side managed a goal in the remaining 20 minutes of regulation or the 20 minutes of the two overtimes.  That sent the game to penalty kicks, where the Bengals emerged victorious to advance in the tournament. UMFK connected in five of six rounds, while the Falcons managed goals in four of the rounds.

For the match, UMFK outshot Notre Dame, 20-17.  Holmes led NDC, with six shots; Andre Anderson had five for the Bengals.  Both teams put six shots on goal.  Each goalkeeper collected four saves on the afternoon.

With the win, Maine-Fort Kent moves on to play NDC conference foe Rio Grande in the Elite-8 of the tournament.  That match is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.  The National Championship Tournament is scheduled to conclude on Saturday, Dec. 6.
The Bengals overtime win preserves what is thus far an unbeaten and dominant season.  They came into Tuesday's match having outscored foes, 126-5, on the year.

For Notre Dame, ranked a program and school-best No. 2 in the nation at the end of the regular season, the season ends in a disappointing way after a hard-fought battle.  The Falcons finished the year with a program-record 19 wins against two losses and one tie.  The tie in Fresno ends what was a program-best nine-match winning streak.