National champs, again! Tigers top Irish for title |
Clemson men’s soccer held off a late Notre Dame charge to add to a packed trophy case for the program.
Clemson topped No. 2 national seed Notre Dame, 2-1, for the program’s second national title in three seasons. Mike Noonan’s ninth-seeded Tigers finished the season on a 14-game unbeaten run, which also included an ACC Championship. "Resilient, tough, elite -- they're a special group," Noonan said postgame. "They're so dynamic in so many different ways and different personalities. It's a very diverse group. The one word that connects it all together is that they love each other." Notre Dame started and finished the first half strong at Lynn Family Stadium in a chilly Louisville Monday evening, but only Clemson’s effort counted on the scoreboard. The Fighting Irish ran up six shots (two on goal) in the first 45 minutes - one that a diving save from Tigers goalkeeper Joseph Andema kept Notre Dame off the scoreboard in the seventh minute. On a fifth corner kick of the half in just under 27 minutes, senior Clemson captain Brandon Parrish took advantage of a failed Notre Dame clearance and rifled a shot from outside of the box and into the net. It was Parrish’s second goal of the season. Clemson’s Mohamed Seye had another good chance that went wide of a mostly open-net later in the half amid a flurry of Irish attacks. The Notre Dame pressure in the second half was even stronger, with six shots in the first 20 minutes, including one off the crossbar and another goal-bound that was saved just in front of the line by Parrish. In the 70th minute, senior Clemson midfielder Ousmane Sylla was there in the middle of the box to deposit his team-best 13th goal into the back of the net to give Clemson some much-needed insurance. Sylla notched six goals and three assists in the Tigers’ ACC and NCAA Championship runs. "He's special," Noonan said. "They're all special, but Ousmane has come to Clemson and he will change his life. And that's special." Andema totaled his third save of the match in the 74th minute off of a goal-bound deflection that went off a Clemson defender. Notre Dame finished with 15 shots to Clemson’s nine, and a late handball from Nathan Richmond paved the way for the Irish to get a penalty kick goal in the 89th minute, the first Clemson goal surrendered the entire tournament. "Family," Parrish said of what guided the team this season. "We said the quotient is love after (2021). We said it all year last year and didn't get what we wanted. So we had a revenge tour and stuck together for the last eight months and we were family. That's why we have this trophy in front of us." Clemson avenged a 3-2 loss to the Irish in South Bend earlier this season. Noonan joins I.M. Ibrahim (1984, 1987) and Dabo Swinney (2016, 2018) as Clemson coaches with multiple national titles. Combined with Ibrahim’s championships, the program has four national titles now. It was a 10th College Cup appearance and a sixth final appearance for the program. Clemson women’s soccer also made the College Cup this year, a first for that program. Clemson became the fourth ACC men's soccer program to win a conference and a national title in the same season. POSTGAME NOTES (via Clemson communications) With the win… -Clemson men’s soccer has won its fourth national championship. -Men’s soccer’s fourth-team national championship is the most by any program at Clemson. -Men’s soccer’s 2023 national championship came 729 days after its 2021 championship. That is the second-shortest duration between team national championships at Clemson since the 728 days between football’s titles in the 2016 and 2018 seasons. -Clemson joins Maryland, UCLA, and San Francisco as men’s soccer programs with four national championships. -Clemson is now one of seven schools in the country with four or more national championships in men’s soccer. *Saint Louis (10), Indiana (8), Virginia (7), Maryland (4), UCLA (4), San Francisco (4), Clemson (4). -Clemson is just the third men’s soccer program to win two or more championships within any three-year period since 2000. *Indiana (2003-2004) and Stanford (2015-2017) -Clemson’s 2023 squad becomes the eighth team and just the fourth program in ACC history to win an ACC Tournament Championship and NCAA Championship in men’s soccer during the same season. The ACC men’s soccer tournament was first held in 1987. *Virginia - 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2009 *Maryland - 2008 *North Carolina - 2011 *Clemson - 2023 -Noonan has become the fourth coach since 2000 to win two or more men’s soccer national championships. *Mike Noonan (Clemson; 2021, 2023) *George Gelnovatch (Virginia; 2009, 2014) *Sasho Cirovski (Maryland; 2005, 2008, 2018) *Jeremy Gunn (Stanford; 2015-2017) -Clemson’s 2023 roster features six members of the program’s 2021 men’s soccer national championship. *Mohamed Seye *Enrique Montana III *Titus Sandy Jr. *Brandon Parrish *Ousmane Sylla *Adam Lundegard -There have only ever been 11 members of the Clemson men’s soccer program who won multiple NCAA Championships during their time at Clemson. *1984 & 1987 - Jamey Rootes, Paul Carollo, Bruce Murray, Paul Rutenis, Tim Genovese *2021 & 2023 - Mohamed Seye, Enrique Montana III, Titus Sandy Jr., Brandon Parrish, Ousmane Sylla, Adam Lundegard. -Nathan Richmond joins his father, Richie Richmond (1987), as a national champion. AN ABSOLUTE DAGGER FOR THE FIRST GOAL!!! 🚀 🤷 🤷 @bparrish1082 #MCollegeCup x @ClemsonMSoccer pic.twitter.com/Kg8SEgisOl Ousmane Sylla is HIM 🤯#ClemsonUnited The development of this play 🧑🍳💋 What a game. What a feeling. 😍#MCollegeCup x @ClemsonMSoccer pic.twitter.com/lJng3fSvN9 Believe it. #MCollegeCup x @ClemsonMSoccer pic.twitter.com/2nJE1a7uSo Turning dreams into reality 👏#MCollegeCup x @clemsonwsoccer pic.twitter.com/2JgOJOntng Coming home to Clemson 🏆 pic.twitter.com/GDDjpEsS9x
📺 ESPNU #MCollegeCup x @ClemsonMSoccer pic.twitter.com/cPRzDHqRfs
pic.twitter.com/jEIzytH4tH
📺 ESPNU#MCollegeCup x @ClemsonMSoccer pic.twitter.com/LZsM1Woe4W
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