NCAA men's tournament

Lapira scores in sudden death, Notre Dame ends Terps' title reign 1-0 in Round of 16.

Joseph Lapira's 22nd goal of the season sent Notre Dame to the NCAA men's tournament quarterfinals for the first time. -- University of Notre Dame web site photo --

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (Saturday, November 18, 2006) -- As the leading goal scorer in NCAA Division I, striker Joseph Lapira has scored with regularity all season. None of his goals, however, were more important than the one he scored in sudden death to give visiting No. 10 Notre Dame a 1-0 triumph over seventh-ranked Maryland, ending the Terrapins' reign as national champions before 2,769 at Ludwig Field tonight.

The Irish (15-5-2) earned their first trip to the NCAA Division I Soccer Championship quarterfinals, a visit Friday to No. 4 Virginia, which edged visiting ninth-ranked California 2-1 tonight, a come-from-behind decision made possible by two second-half goals by sophomore forward Yannick Reyering.

This marked the second straight season that the Irish ended the season for the defending Division I champion. A year ago, Notre Dame eliminated Indiana 2-0 in the second round.

"I think it was a very good college soccer game," Notre Dame coach Bobby Clark said. "I felt like it could have gone either way. It was a very tough contest. Both teams must take a lot of credit."

Lapira had a good chance in the first of the two possible 10-minute overtime periods, taking a pass from junior midfielder Kurt Martin and chipping a shot over sophomore goalkeeper Chris Seitz. The ball trickled wide right.

Moments later, Maryland junior midfielder Stephen King nearly won it for the Terps when he sent a shot off the crossbar.

Lapira could not be stopped in the second OT. Senior reserve midfielder Dale Rellas fed Lapira for a blast that caromed off a post and into the net for his 22nd tally and the 1-0 victory at 115:35, 4:25 before the result would have been decided in penalty kicks.

Maryland (16-5-1) started strong and took the game's first four shots, forcing Irish goalkeeper Chris Cahill into diving saves to turn away deflections. Cahill was injured in the 11th minute and replaced by freshman Andrew Quinn.

"From the second half on, I felt very comfortable," Clark said. "I thought we maybe dodged a couple bullets in the opening minutes. Then, I felt we settled it."

The Terps had an 8-3 shots advantage at halftime and 16-14 overall. Cahill made four saves during his brief stint, while Quinn made three. Seitz had seven stops in the losing cause.

"We lost six kids to the pros last year and then we lost one of the best players in the country (rising sophomore midfielder Robbie Rogers) to a pro contract in the preseason," Maryland coach Sasho Cirovski said. "A lot of people had us for dead this year. We played to record crowds everywhere. We battled and beat a lot of great teams. We played a lot of great soccer and it might have caught up to us a little bit in the end."

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