Irish unzip Akron!

Notre Dame 3 – Akron 1

It was a beautiful, fresh, late summer afternoon in South Bend when Notre Dame and Akron kicked off for the final of the Berticelli Memorial Tournament. Akron settled first and in just the 4^th minute Scott Caldwell struck a hard, low shot past Pat Wall in the Notre Dame goal. It certainly was not the way the Irish had hoped to start but they responded immediately when Max Lachowecki lashed a powerful shot off the Zips’ goalpost.

Things suddenly got even better for Notre Dame when Aiden Quinn picked up a red card for an elbow on Nick Besler. Playing a man down, Akron just managed to hold on until the interval and went in up 1-0.

With Akron a man down, the second half was very much a procession towards their goal and it was no surprise, just four minutes in, when Leon Brown met a cross from Patrick Hodan and blasted it high into the roof of the Akron net. This took the pressure off and using the extra man Notre Dame kept the ball and really had Akron chasing the game. Things got even better in the 64^th minute when Dillon Powers hammered home a free-kick from the edge of the box. With just 10 minutes remaining, the game was finally put to bed when Patrick Hodan was tripped in the box and Ryan Finley converted to make the final score 3-1 for the Irish.

The first match between Indiana and Oregon State ended in a 3-2 win for the Hoosiers, so this meant that Notre Dame was the tournament winner. This is the second successive championship weekend, as the Irish won the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic last weekend in Bloomington.

Here are the results and All Tournament team:

2012 Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament Final Standings
1. Notre Dame (2-0-0)
2. Akron (1-1-0)*
3. Indiana (1-1-0)
4. Oregon State (0-2-0)

* – won tiebreaker based on head-to-head play

2012 Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament All-Tournament Team
Offensive MVP – Leon Brown, Jr., F, Notre Dame
Defensive MVP – Grant Van De Casteele, Sr., D, Notre Dame
Goalkeeping Co-MVP – Will Walsh, Sr., GK, Notre Dame & Patrick Wall, Jr., GK, Notre Dame

Leon Brown, Jr., F, Notre Dame
Grant Van De Casteele, Sr., D, Notre Dame
Max Lachowecki, So., D, Notre Dame
Dillon Powers, Sr., M, Notre Dame
Chad Barson, Sr., D, Akron
Dillon Serna, Fr., M, Akron
Scott Caldwell, Sr., M, Akron
A.J. Corrado, Jr., M, Indiana
Kerel Bradford, So., M, Indiana
Matt Bersano, Fr., GK, Oregon State
Emery Welshman, Sr., F, Oregon State