Clemson men's soccer advances to national title game in penalties over Notre Dame |
Ninety minutes were not enough to decide a National Championship game participant between No. 8 national seed Clemson and No. 4 national seed Notre Dame after a goal apiece was scored Friday evening in Cary, North Carolina.
An extra 20 minutes of overtime didn’t resolve things either. But like how each team advanced to the College Cup last week, the action came down to penalties and Clemson advanced through to a College Cup final for the first time since 2015. Clemson senior John Martin came off the bench for the first penalty and knocked it through to set the tone for the Tigers, and after Clemson hit its first four attempts, Tigers senior goalkeeper George Marks' dive to his right got the first stop of the PK rounds. Clemson senior Justin Malou then stepped to the spot and coolly knocked in the game-clincher from there. "I thought it was a really good soccer game," Clemson head men's soccer coach Mike Noonan said. "Two really different styles. And I felt at the end of the day, our goaltender played exceptionally well. The steel of our team -- the character of our team is something that we’ve relied on over the course of the year and it turned up again tonight.” The Tigers (15-5-2) will play No. 2 national seed Washington (18-1-2) Sunday at 2 p.m. at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina (ESPNU). Clemson is seeking its third national title in men's soccer and a first since 1987. The first half action was even all the way to the scoreboard. The reigning ACC champs Notre Dame (14-5-5) threatened to put an early goal on the board with forward Tyler Shea sending a rocket off the crossbar in the fourth minute. The Fighting Irish tallied four shots and one shot on goal in the first 45 minutes. Clemson got the board first with senior midfielder Pipe Fernandez (Luis Felipe Fernandez-Salvador) firing a missile from outside the box to the top left corner, off the crossbar and into the net 11 minutes in. It was his team-best eighth goal of the season. Notre Dame’s answer came after a flurry of action in Clemson’s end, which included a shot off the post and then a foul on an Irish attacker in the box to bring a penalty kick. First-team All-ACC forward Jack Lynn did the rest from there by rolling a ball to the corner out of Marks’ diving stretch. Holding 62 percent of the possession, Clemson finished the half with three shots and and the one on goal. Notre Dame racked up 10 fouls to Clemson’s six and had the only two corner kicks of the first session. The second half’s start had more Clemson control of the possession but few good scoring chances for either side. That changed soon after, however. In the 66th minute, the Irish almost took advantage of a Clemson giveaway around goal that Lynn sent just wide of Marks hard and low to the ground. Not long after that, Clemson forward Mohamed Seye was served up a header shot in the box that went to Notre Dame goalkeeper Bryan Dowd’s chest for the first save of the game. With 15 to go, Notre Dame had a flurry of chances in the Clemson box where the Tigers captain Marks – clearing one near ball over the goal line out – and the Clemson defenders were eventually able to clear the ball. Notre Dame had another dangerous chance in the 89th minute on a header from Mohamed Omar that went into the ground and wide of the net. In the final seconds of regulation, the Irish had a pair of corner kicks that Clemson fended off to force overtime. Notre Dame logged five shots to Clemson’s three in the second session. A long throw-in from Notre Dame to a Lynn header kicked off the early extra action, where Marks stretched out for a remarkable save to his right. In the 95th minute, Marks stepped up to a one-on-one in the box versus Notre Dame’s Kyle Genebacher in front of goal and stretched out a leg for a stop. Lynn pushed the action more minutes later with a half-field dribble but could not put a shot on net at the end of it. After a quiet start to the second overtime, Notre Dame again was on the attack after drawing a yellow card on Seye for a free kick just outside of the box. Reese Mayer’s header went off target, however, to keep the action going. This is Clemson's ninth all-time College Cup appearance. Looking ahead to Sunday, there is a tight turnaround after playing 110-plus minutes of soccer, but Noonan -- who called that NCAA-instituted short turnaround "one of the silliest things" in college soccer -- believes he will rely on his key players again and there will be extra adrenaline with a national title on the line. "Our best may have to go a little bit longer on Sunday," Noonan said. "But I think that we've got great strength and conditioning people and people who put us in a place to play such a long game and keep our heads when it gets to penalties. They take over now. The coaches do the scouting and preparation when it comes to the technical thing, and as for the physical piece, we've got fantastic people who work with our team and they go to work now and we do our very, very best with our trainers and doctors and our conditioning to make sure we're ready for Sunday... "This game no question will takes its toll physically on our team, but at the same point though, there are a lot of things that can take over and a lot of things that can help when it comes to that physicality, a longer bench, adrenaline and playing for the national championship are three of those things." Marks hopes to add another trophy to Clemson's case and legacy. "I think it would mean everything. To me, the older boys and the younger boys, the alums -- that's a massive thing for Clemson with such a storied history," the Raleigh native Marks said, who saved two penalties last week in the upset at No. 1 Oregon State to help Clemson advance to the College Cup. "It's something we talk about a lot is trying to raise that jersey as high as we can. Leave the program better than we found it. We like to think we've done that already, but this would obviously be a tangible way to (do that)." ONE MORE TIME FOR THOSE BACK HOME… CALM. COOL. COLLECTED. THE GAME-WINNER FROM JUSTIN MALOU!!!!!!! IT'S ON TO THE NATTY, BABY!!!!!!!#ClemsonUnited???? pic.twitter.com/QNn7Tyu5PT ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?!?!?!? #ClemsonUnited???? pic.twitter.com/AnkyCuynoO Quite simply a BANGER!!!!! PIPE'S BLAST PUTS US UP EARLY!!! The EQUALIZER!@NDMenSoccer ties it up.#MCollegeCup x ?? ESPNU pic.twitter.com/N6RfdTNIlJ ANOTHER LEGENDARY MOMENT FOR CLEMSON UNITED!!! MADNESS AT WAKEMED SOCCER PARK!! pic.twitter.com/NOLSWhGwHO We Win.....We DANCE ??#ClemsonUnited???? pic.twitter.com/vmklTpwKJt https://t.co/mPxwMOjre8's @nataliedbode talks with @ClemsonMSoccer goalie George Marks after defeating Notre Dame in penalty kicks to advance to the #MCollegeCup final. pic.twitter.com/yiHFEH3jXO
??GEORGE. FREAKING. MARKS. #ClemsonUnited???? pic.twitter.com/D6njYgqUrl
Tune into ESPNU NOW to catch all the action!!#ClemsonUnited????
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??https://t.co/hfncZqTusj pic.twitter.com/wAufDchxRy
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