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Coming in to Tuesday night's match, Notre Dame had trailed just twice all season long. They trailed when Xavier's Jalen Brown punched a goal in just after halftime, and they trailed for the entire second half of their match against North Carolina after Tucker Hume rifled a goal home with three seconds left in the first half.
The Fighting Irish lost both of those matches.
On Tuesday night, Notre Dame matched that season total of lagging behind when Marquette took leads on them on two separate occasions. The Golden Eagles weren't up to the task of fending off ND, though, and the #7 Fighting Irish lived up to their nickname and rallied from behind for the first time all season to win, 4-2.
Now I know how Dennis Green felt.
Marquette took their first lead of the game in the seventh minute off a bit of a lucky break. C. Nortey tried to slip a ball past ND keeper Chris Hubbard, but Hubbard turned it away... directly to the foot of David Selvaggi. The redshirt senior may not have an easier goal the rest of the season as he had to just gently tap it into the net for the 1-0 lead. Notre Dame clawed back to even in the 19th minute on a precision strike from Patrick Hodan for his first goal of the year. It came off a Marquette turnover on a failed clearance, and Hodan found himself deep on the right side of the box and slipped the low angle shot past MU keeper Luis Barraza.
Marquette sent Notre Dame to their fourth deficit of the season in the 67th minute when Toby Howell found Nortey out in front of the Irish net. Some artful footwork from the Ghana native had the ND defense on skates and he sent a simple strike to the far post for the 2-1 lead. That lead barely lasted seven minutes until Michael Shipp sent a ball soaring towards the far post. I can't officially tell you if Barraza ever really had a chance at hauling it in, but he wasn't under pressure from the Notre Dame offense as it sailed overhead and clanged in off the post.
MU trailed for the first time on the night after Max Lachowecki's second goal of the season gave ND the lead for good in the 80th minute. Lachowecki finished off a clean feed from Jon Gallagher that appeared to clip off of Barraza ever so slightly as the freshman keeper attempted to clear it away with a slide. If the game wasn't over at that point, it definitely was after Gallagher got himself on the board in the 89th minute. He was able to slip behind a Jeffery Farina deflection of a goal kick from Hubbard as Marquette was attempting to press forward for one last attempt to tie the match and send it to overtime.
It ended up being a fairly close match from a shots perspective, as the Irish outdid MU 17-14 in that category. Notre Dame also had three more corner kicks than Marquette, winning that battle 6-3. Barraza ended up making four saves, all in the first half, while Hubbard made three in the first half and two in the second to give Notre Dame their third straight win after their first two losses of the season.
Marquette drops to 3-3-2 on the season with the loss, as they come up short in their first crack at a ranked opponent on the season.
How about some highlights, courtesy of UND.com?
Up Next: It's back to Big East play for the Golden Eagles. They'll head back out on the road to square off with Villanova on Saturday afternoon. The Wildcats are 4-3-0 on the season after dropping their Big East opener to Butler, and they'll play at La Salle on Wednesday night before hosting Marquette.