Notre Dame’s Sean Hayes and West Haven’s Marcus Anyafulu display great sportsmanship during the first of two games between the city rivals this past Saturday. They played to a 1-1 tie.
The Notre Dame sports season got underway with a trio of events as fall sports finally got to ply their trade after a pre-season of getting ready to compete.
Cross-Country
The very first team to compete on the varsity level in the 2017-18 academic year was the cross-country team. Under second-year head coach Rich Andreozzi, the team opened its season placing 14th in the Blue Dragon Invitational in Middletown on Friday, Sept. 8.
Thomas Minar led the way for Notre Dame, taking 31st place, finishing the 5k race in 19:14.5. Rory O’Connor and David Albright were the next two ND runners to cross the finish line. O’Connor finished in a time of 20.21.3 while Albright crossed the finish line in a time of 20:23.5. Mark Crotta ‘18 and Liam Nuttall ‘18 rounded out Notre Dame’s runners in this event.
Football
The football team made its debut under first-year head coach Joe DeCaprio when they faced off against Fairfield Prep in the season opener. Despite out-gaining the Jesuits, Notre Dame fell, 29-12.
The game turned on a pair of 14-point swings. Leading 6-0, Chris Elias’ third-down scoring pass was negated due to an illegal forward pass. Fairfield Prep held on fourth down and two plays later took a 7-6 lead on the first of two Doug Harrison touchdown runs.
Later in the game, trailing 23-12 and looking to make it a one-score game, the Green Knights fumbled on the one-yard line and Fairfield Prep’s Anthony Mastroni scooped and scored, returning it 97 yards for a backbreaking score.
Leading the way for Notre Dame were Elias, who completed 17 of 26 passes for 173 yards and a scoring strike to Zach Hochman. Isaiah Kane and Kalieb Cadet led the ND ground attack with 68 and 64 yards respectively.
Notre Dame returns to action when they travel to Groton for a non-league matchup with Fitch on Friday, Sept. 15. Kick-off is at 6:30 p.m. The game will be streamed live on GoGreenKnights.com starting at 6.
Soccer
You wouldn’t expect anything different when cross-town rivals Notre Dame and West Haven opened their season against each other on the soccer pitch in prime time at Ken Strong Stadium this past Saturday night.
Teams very familiar with each other entertained the fans with some fine play and when the final whistle blew, the two teams met and shook hands following a 1-1 tie.
After a scoreless first half, the Blue Devils were whistled for tripping Notre Dame’s Joe Antonucci inside the box resulting in a penalty kick. Shane Mufarinya calmly drilled a chest high shot to the right beating Saul Novoa for a 1-0 Notre Dame lead with 18:52 left in the game.
However, the lead was short lived as West Haven tied the game less than 10 minutes later. Off a free kick following a foul called against Notre Dame, Daniel Morales blasted a shot that got through Notre Dame netminder Rory Schreck to even the game.
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