What a week on the D1 Men's Soccer landscape with multiple undefeated teams squaring off against one another from top to bottom. Tight games were played, big goals were scored and some teams came out unscathed while other will go back to the drawing board. Let's take a look at some big performances this week:
MORE: Freshmen Phenoms Lighting It Up
Offensive Performance of the Week
BR-1 Notre Dame's Brandon Aubrey led the Irish to a 4-1 victory over BR-50 Virginia Tech on Friday night, effectively handing the Hokies their first loss of the season. Aubrey picked up his first career hat trick in the victory, notching three goals on four shots with his second and third goals within a five minute span. Aubrey now has six goals on the season with 12 total points, three game-winners and is a perfect 3 for 3 on penalty kicks.
The victory moves the top ranked Irish team to a perfect 5-0 on the year.
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Defensive Performance of the Week
BR-23 Old Dominion took its first loss of the season on Friday, falling to Vermont 3-1. On Sunday, The Monarchs rebounded in a big way and posted a 1-0 victory over previously unbeaten BR-40 Radford, 1-0. The Highlanders team contains a potent offense which ODU was able to completely shut down. Alex Tiesenhausen grabbed eight saves in the net while the defense allowed 16 total shots.
Overall this season, the Highlanders have scored eight goals in their first four games of the season before running up against the Monarchs, who were the first team to shut them down.
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Games of the Week
David Goldsmith scored what proved to be the game-winning goal versus UCSB. (Photo Courtesy: Jay Dunwell/Butler Athletics)
In a battle of unbeatens on Friday night, BR-17 Butler came out on top, winning 4-2 over BR-13 UCSB. The Bulldogs got off first as Mitch Ostrowski scored less than two minutes into the game. Sixteen minutes later, Butler led 2-0 with Lewis Suddick grabbing his fourth goal of the season. UCSB's Ahinga Selemani cut the lead in half, but David Goldsmith put the Bulldogs up 3-1 six minutes later.
The teams traded goals down the stretch, but it was Butler who came out unscathed.
Dominick Falanga (3) scored the tying goal versus Hartwick. (Photo Courtesy: Hawks Athletics)
It came down to penalty kicks in the BR-80 St. Francis-Brooklyn vs. BR-120 Hartwick match this weekend, with the Terriers coming out on top 5-4 after drawing 1-1 in regulation. Hartwick got on the board first in the battle of the Mayor's Cup, but St. Francis knotted the game up with 10 minutes remaining.
Three overtime periods resulted in neither team finding the back of the net, but the Terriers got the best of the Hawks in the shootout.
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Comeback of the Week
Down 1-0 after a full half of play in the books, BR-90 Gonzaga was on the brink of losing its first game of the season, but rallied to down George Washington, 2-1, on Sunday afternoon. The Zags (5-0-1) had never trailed at any point of the season prior to the Patriots finding the back of the net early on.
By rallying to tie the game up and then closing it out with a score from Ben White, Gonzaga still has a chance at achieving the team's best start since 1980, when the squad went 8-0 to kick off the season.
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Video of the Week
Aubrey's great game for Notre Dame was, obviously, noteworthy, but overall the Irish have to be highlighted for the phenomenal performance they put up against Virginia Tech.
Here some highlights, courtesy UND.com:
