The 2024 School Soccer Playoff opened on Friday evening with No. 7 seed Notre Dame incomes a convincing 27-17 win over No. 10 seed Indiana.
Listed here are 4 takeaways from Notre Dame’s win.
1. Notre Dame did what it wanted to do
Don’t let the comparatively shut rating idiot you into considering this sport was extra aggressive than it was. At no level within the evening did this sport ever really feel like the result was in jeopardy, whereas Indiana’s solely two touchdowns got here within the ultimate two minutes when a comeback was virtually unimaginable. It was window dressing. Nothing extra.
As quickly as Notre Dame’s Jeremiyah Love broke free for a 98-yard touchdown in the first quarter to open the scoring, the sport appeared to be over.
Notre Dame got here in as a large favourite, had the home-field benefit, the higher roster and was anticipated to win.
It did.
Simply.
Outdoors of that early-season slip-up towards Northern Illinois, Notre Dame has been among the best and most constant groups within the nation. It confirmed that once more on Friday.
Now it strikes on to the quarterfinals the place it’ll play No. 2 Georgia.
2. Indiana didn’t do itself any favors
If Indiana was attempting to ship a message that it was among the best groups within the nation and silence the critics of its placement within the playoff subject, it failed in a giant manner.
The most important knock on the Hoosiers all season was its poor power of schedule and the truth that its finest win was over a Michigan staff that had a down 12 months whereas attempting to exchange its beginning quarterback and head coach from a 12 months in the past (amongst others).
The one actually elite staff they performed all season was Ohio State, which become a 38-15 defeat.
Regardless of that poor power of schedule, the 11-1 regular-season document — and offense that averaged over 43 factors per sport — was sufficient to earn them a No. 10 seed within the 12-team playoff subject.
In some methods, this sport went even worse than the sport at Ohio State a number of weeks in the past.
It might be unfair to say that Indiana didn’t deserve its spot. It had an ideal 12 months and did sufficient to be one of many 12 groups. However it merely didn’t have sufficient to match up with Notre Dame, and primarily based on its video games towards the Combating Irish and Ohio State, it’s not fairly on the extent of a nationwide title contender.
Typically you may have that in playoffs. In any sport, in any league and at any degree.
3. Curt Cignetti didn’t grasp the second
Having mentioned all of that about Indiana, head coach Curt Cignetti didn’t appear to understand the second or perceive what was wanted from his staff with some shockingly conservative teaching selections.
The primary of these got here within the first quarter when, going through a 4th-and-7 from the Notre Dame 37-yard line and already trailing 7-0, he elected to punt the soccer again to the Irish.
He ended up getting a 20-yard punt that netted Indiana solely 20 yards of subject place and was adopted by an 83-yard Notre Dame landing drive.
At that time, the sport was just about over.
Late within the second quarter, with Indiana now down 14-0 and going through a 4th-and-4 on the Notre Dame 16-yard line (on what might need been his staff’s finest drive of the sport), he elected to easily take the factors and kick a subject purpose as a substitute of going for a landing.
Subject targets had been by no means going to get Indiana again into this sport.
Within the fourth quarter, he had yet another extremely conservative transfer when he once more punted from the Notre Dame facet of the sector (on a 4th-and-8) whereas trailing by 17 factors.
Even ESPN’s announcers had been shocked.
