This Week: Notre Dame College men's soccer will head to Philippi, W.Va., on Sept. 21, for a matchup under the lights against Alderson Broaddus University. That contest is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m. On Sunday, Sept. 25, NDC will come home to play West Liberty University, at 1 p.m.
Records: Notre Dame enters the week with a record of 5-2-1 (4-2-1 MEC), riding a three-game winning streak. AB is currently 1-4-2 (1-3-1 MEC) after playing once last week and falling to Charleston by a score of 4-1, on Wednesday. West Liberty has not played a non-conference game, and hold a record of 1-3-2.
Coaches Corner: Carl Nolan is in his seventh season as head coach of the Notre Dame program and 19th as a member of the coaching staff. He currently has an overall coaching record of 68-29-10, while going 57-19-7 against MEC competition. Aron Bassoff is in his first season at the helm of the Alderson Broaddus program. The head coach of West Liberty is Sean Regan, who has been coaching the Hilltoppers for the past three seasons, posting a record of 14-33-3 (13-30-3 MEC).
Rankings: None of these teams are receiving votes in the United Soccer Coaches (USC) Division II National poll. The Falcons are now fifth in the USC Atlantic Region poll.
Series History: Since West Liberty reinstated the program in 2018, the Falcons have gone 7-0-1 against the Hilltoppers. Notre Dame is 2-1 against Alderson Broaddus, after first meeting in the spring 2021 campaign.
Noting the Falcons: Notre Dame has been on a roll lately, defeating Concord, Wheeling and Frostburg State and outscoring those teams 14-3. Prior to the three-game win streak, NDC shutout West Liberty in a game that ended in a draw. The Falcons have not lost a game since Sept. 4, against Charleston, and have not lost a game at home all season. Last week, Notre Dame finished its fourth shutout of the season in a 3-0 victory over Wheeling.
Connor O'Reilly scored for the first time as a member of the Falcons, scoring in the 20th minute and the 64th minute.
Jose Rivas also scored in the 64th minute.
Jordan Lewis,
Leonardo Palmieri and
Taylor Dyson were all credited with assists against Wheeling. In a 4-2 win over Frostburg State,
Jordan Lewis and
Leonardo Palmieri each scored a goal and then
Simao Coelho had his first multi-goal game of his career, putting two in the net in the second half. Palmieri,
Jack Milford and
Taylor Dyson all had one assist in the game, while
Carlos Almeida accounted for two. The NDC defense did not allow FSU to take a shot in the first half of the game.
Leonardo Palmieri was named MEC Defensive Player of the Week after he was on the pitch for every minute of the two games. He also scored a goal and assisted on two others.
Taylor Dyson leads the Falcons with four goals and four assists this season, while also leading the team with 639 minutes played. Dyson is currently 14th in shot accuracy (66.7-percent) and 15th in total assists.
Simao Coelho now has put three in the net, which is second best on the team.
Rafael Baia (3 goals allowed, 8 saves) has played four games in goal, while
Pedro Alves (6 GA, 10 S) has appeared in five games.
Noting the Battlers: Aside from the Battlers' first win of the season, a 1-0 victory over West Liberty on Sept. 11, the last four games have been a struggle for AB. In the last four games, Alderson Broaddus has lost three of them and has been outscored 12-1 in those losses. Last week, the Battlers played one game, losing 4-1 to nationally-ranked Charleston. In that contest, a goal by Angel De Avila tied the game at one in the 53rd minute, but UC quickly grabbed the lead back seven minutes later.
Nathan Bouard and Andreas Rossak each have two goals this season to lead the team. Diego Gomez has been the primary goalkeeper this season, starting six games, making forty saves while facing 96 shots.
Noting the Hilltoppers: West Liberty has yet to get into the win column this month. Their only win of the season was a 4-1 victory against Concord, on August 31. The Hilltoppers started the month strong with back-to-back shutouts, resulting in scoreless draws. WLU played just one game last week, losing 5-1 to West Virginia Wesleyan. In that game, Wesleyan scored in the sixth minute to take a lead, but WLU's Danilo Tavares scored off an assist by Vitor Otsuka to tie the game in the first half. WVWC would score four times, and out-shoot West Liberty 11-2, in the second half.
This season, West Liberty has scored five times and is averaging less than a goal per game. Oskar Voges is the only player on the team with a goal and an assist for the Hilltoppers. Vitor Otsuka has two assists.
