The 11th ranked Saint Louis University men’s soccer team felt
the sting of defeat for the first time this year in an exhibition
game against 12th ranked Notre Dame, losing 2-0.

The first half of the game saw each team scoreless. The Irish
keeper was kept busy while the Bills outshot the Irish 5-1.

The Irish keeper had a great save against freshman midfielder
Will John in the second minute of the game. The Irish keeper also
had another save against freshman forward Vedad Ibisevic, to keep
the game even.

The Bills seemed ready to play when they came out in the second
half and in the first minute, sophomore Andrew Moses put the ball
in the goal to the great pleasure of the crowd, only to have the
referees take it back on an off-sides call.

The score remained tied until the 49th minute, when an Irish
defender served the ball up to the Notre Dame forward Justin
Detter, who shot the ball and scored, putting the Irish up by
1.

At the 78:21 mark the Irish saw another chance to add to their
lead. An Irish midfielder placed the ball in the middle of the SLU
defense.

Detter crossed the ball in front of the goal, and Devon Prescod
kicked the ball in, giving the Irish a 2-0 lead. The Bills were
unable to form any comeback in the final minutes of the game.

The Irish outshot the Bills 10-7. SLU had seven corner kicks to
the Irish’s eight. SLU keeper Martin Hutton had three saves, while
Irish keeper, Chris Sawyer made two stops.

While the Bills could not come away with the win, the crowd came
out in large numbers to cheer the team on. The 5,088 spectators
made it the second largest crowd in the stadium’s existence.

The only larger crowd was for the opening dedication of the
stadium 14 years ago. But this should come as no surprise as the
Bills have consistently ranked high with their attendance
average.

The Bills have their regular season opener on Friday, Aug. 29 at
4 p.m. against Akron in the Virginia Classic.

The Bills will then play the Virginia Cavaliers on Sunday, Aug.
31, at 1:30 p.m. The Bills lead the all-time series against Akron
7-1-0, but they have not faced each other since 1989. The Akron
Zips are a part of the Mid-American Conference and are knocking on
the door of the top 25 rankings.

The Cavaliers are a team that the Bills have never been able to
defeat, going 0-3-2 in the series all-time. Two of the victories
for Virginia were in the national semi-final games. The other loss
was in overtime in the Cavaliers tournament in 1996.