No. 13 Notre Dame women’s soccer’s defense has been an impenetrable wall this season.
Prior to Thursday night’s matchup against Boston College, the Irish had not given up a goal in 28 days, recording shutouts against every opponent since their only loss of the season to Michigan State on August 15th.
Then, in the span of about a minute , the Irish gave up two goals. To the same player. Ava Lung struck at the 33:04 and 34:05 marks to put the Eagles up 2–0.
“Ava’s such a smart player,” BC head coach Chris Watkins said. “This wasn’t a pressured moment for her. She’s been there and done that, so really proud of the way she struck over those balls. Especially the second—some really impressive shots.”
2003 was the last time the Eagles took down Notre Dame—BC’s only win over the Irish to go along with 16 losses. BC was inches away from getting its second win, but two goals from Ellie Hodsden—including a header with under three minutes remaining—forced a tie.
BC (7–1–1, 0–0–1 Atlantic Coast) opened ACC play with a 2–2 tie against rival Notre Dame (6–1–1, 0–0–1 ACC) in the Eagles’ annual Red Bandanna game honoring Welles Crowther.
“I was really happy, as I told the team, with our ability to rise defensively, our pressure and our intensity was really good throughout,” Watkins said. “We made some mechanical mistakes, but they were working for 90 minutes.”
Notre Dame didn’t lie down after BC’s quick 2–0 lead materialized. Instead, Hodsden came up with a quick answer.
When Wiebke Willebrandt came out of the goal to punt the ball away, Hodsden swept in front of her, stole the ball and scored an uncontested goal from the right side to cut BC’s lead to one.
Mistakes like that were few and far between for Willebrandt, who recorded eight saves to try and contain the eighth-best scoring offense in the nation.
“Anytime you have eight saves, you know it was a big night for your goalkeeper,” Watkins said. “She’s a senior. She’s seen everything before. She’s been the starting goalie for four years now, so we’re gonna have to rely on her quite a bit this season.”
Less than two minutes into the second half, Morgan Roy nearly succeeded in tying things up, but her ball flew right over the crossbar. The Eagles survived another near-goal from Roy with 34:57 left in the match when her shot missed just left.
“We asked them to put their hard hats on and get to work,” Watkins said. “And they did that tonight for 90 minutes.”
As the clock ticked down, the Irish seemed more frantic. Notre Dame head coach Nate Norman could be heard threatening that he would “take his team off the field” after the referees refused to reverse a call.
After fending off the Irish for 42 minutes, BC’s defense finally caved. Hodsden received a long pass from the left corner and hit a header that flew past Willebrandt into the net, knotting the game at 2–2. The Eagles were unable to conjure up a score in the final few minutes, and both squads began conference play with a tie.
