September 29, 2012
IRISH STUMBLE
Notre Dame falls to UConn 2-1

STORRS, Conn. – No. 2 Connecticut jumped out to a two goal lead and held on to defeat No. 8 Notre Dame 2-1 on Saturday night in front of 5,100 fans at Morrone Stadium.

Connecticut (9-0-1, 2-0-0) opened the scoring in the 29th minute on a penalty kick from Carlos Alvarez. The attempt was awarded when Fighting Irish goalkeeper Will Walsh tripped up UConn’s Allando Matheson in the box.

The Huskies grabbed a 2-0 lead in the 36th minute on a tally from Flo Liu, who gained control of a loose ball at the top of the 18-yard box and sent a shot off the crossbar and into the netting. Alvarez assisted on the score.

“We were very good tonight in many facets of the game,” said Irish head coach Bobby Clark. “We opened the game very well, but unfortunately we made a couple of errors and they capitalized. The penalty kick was toughbecause I thought their (Connecticut) guy was going away from the goal. I then thought we had a little bit of a lack of concentration after they scored that goal.”

Notre Dame’s Dillon Powers sliced the Connecticut lead in half less than four minutes into the second stanza. The senior midfielder tucked the ball into the lower left corner of the net for his third goal of the season, which halted goalkeeper Andre Blake's and Connecticut’s scoreless streak at 437:58. Junior right back Luke Mishu assisted on the tally to record his first point of the season.

Notre Dame (8-2-0, 0-2-0) out shot Connecticut 11-9 for the match. The Irish also gained two more corner kicks (6-4) than the Huskies. Walsh had four saves for the Irish, while Blake had six stops.

“I felt we completely controlled the game in the second half,” added Clark. “Full marks to our team for handling themselves well and getting a goal back right away in the second half. Playing games like these on the road in front of big crowds could be very useful to us later on in the season.”

Notre Dame will play host to Big East Blue Division foe Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. (ET) on Wednesday at Alumni Stadium.