Men's Soccer Ties #13 Notre Dame, 1-1

BOX SCORE (.html)
BOX SCORE (.pdf) 

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J.   The Seton Hall men’s soccer team played to its fourth tie in five games on Wednesday night, earning a 1-1 draw with #13 Notre Dame.  The Pirates (6-6-4, 2-3-4) move into a tie for fourth place in the BIG EAST Blue Division after grabbing a point against the Fighting Irish (9-4-2, 5-1-2).

Seton Hall took the early lead with a beautiful display of passing in the 13^th minute.  Sophomore Samuel Petrone (Glen Rock, N.J.) controlled the ball on the right side of the box and fed classmate Steven Rose (Acton, Mass.) in the middle.  Rose quickly touched a pass to sophomore Dritan Sela (Wayne, N.J.) on the left side for a blast from 12 yards out that gave the Hall a 1-0 lead.  The goal was the fourth of the season for Sela.

The Pirates maintained control of the game and kept the Irish in check throughout before a late rally came together for Notre Dame.  In the 82^nd minute, the Irish attack resulted in Alex Yoshinaga scoring the equalizer from 20 yards out on an unassisted goal. 

Moments later, Bright Dike had a scoring chance for Notre Dame, but junior SHU keeper Paul McHenry (Ephrata, Pa.) came up with a huge save to keep things even.

In the first overtime, the Hall outshot the Irish 4-2, with its best chance coming on an attempt by Rose that was denied by goalkeeper Andrew Quinn in the 97^th minute.

Notre Dame peppered McHenry with a pair of shots on goal in the second extra session, but he was up to the task once again.  A final attempt by Jeb Brovsky on the Pirates’ goal drifted just wide with four seconds left as the teams’ settled for a hard-earned point in the standings.

Sophomore Brayan Martinez (West Orange, N.J.) led all players with nine shots, while Dike paced the Irsih with seven.  Sela and Rose had three each for SHU.

McHenry came up with eight saves on the day, countered by one for Quinn.  Notre Dame finished with a 27-18 edge in shots.

SHU is back in action on Saturday afternoon for its Senior Day contest against Pittsburgh, beginning at 3:00 p.m.