Shelby Lum / Photo editor
Junior midfielder Yianni Sarris looks for an open teammate during a match against IPFW on Aug. 20, at Jesse Owen’s Memorial Stadium. OSU won, 2-0.
No. 7 Notre Dame defeated unranked Ohio State, 1-0 Monday in South Bend, Ind. night to finish off exhibition play.
Notre Dame was able to set the tempo for a scoreless first half by controlling possession as a young Buckeye team struggled to put together any attack. The Fighting Irish outshot the Buckeyes 13-1 in the first half, but OSU junior goalkeeper Alex Ivanov kept the team alive by gathering a total of 7 saves, stopping everything that came his way.
To begin the second half, OSU coach John Bluem opted to replaceIvanov with junior goalkeeper Andrian McAdams, who helped record a win last week against Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne. Notre Dame came out with the same game plan as the first half, using aggressive offensive play.
The Irish were able to capitalize against McAdams in the 66th minute when senior forward Leon Brown trapped the ball after it bounced off the crossbar from a shot and sent it across the box where fellow senior forward Alex Priede was waiting to tap it in for a goal. The match ended with Notre Dame holding a 25-6 advantage in shots on goal.
OSU’s best chance to score came late in the match when junior midfielder Alec Lowell took a free kick from just outside the top of the box and blasted it over the goal. Lowell came into the match with 28 minutes left and tallied two shots, including one of the team’s two shots on target.
Bluem said he was pleased with the team’s effort Monday and hopes to have a starting roster in place after a couple of days of watching film.
“I’m happy with the effort from our guys tonight and we learned a lot about our players,” Bluem said. “We started four freshmen tonight and this is a highly ranked team and one of the toughest we will play this year. They outplayed us for most of the game but we didn’t yield and kept fighting.”
Since the Buckeyes only return four starters from last year, coaches used exhibition to learn about the young players and see who should earn a spot on the regular season starting roster. OSU brought in a total of nine freshmen as part of a top-30 recruiting class.
OSU ends exhibition play with a record of 1-2 after losing 1-0 to both West Virginia and Notre Dame. The team’s lone exhibition win came last week defeating IPFW 2-0.
The Buckeyes are scheduled to begin regular season play this weekend in the Wolstein Classic when they take on UNC-Wilmington Aug. 30 at 7:30 p.m. and Northern Illinois Sept. 1 at 2:30 p.m. at Jesse Owens Memorial Stadium.
