SOUTH BEND, Ind. -  Junior Robby Spradlin III made his first career start in goal making five saves while facing 15 total shots as Detroit Mercy battled No. 20 Notre Dame for the entire match in a 1-0 setback on Tuesday night at Alumni Field.   

After the Fighting Irish (3-0-1) took a 1-0 lead just 18 minutes into the match, Spradlin III and the young back line consisting of sophomores Casey McCarthy and John Nino and freshmen Drew Pierson and Joey Iaquaniello held ND scoreless in the second half.

"Playing on the road at an ACC opponent is always going to be a challenge and Notre Dame showed that sometimes all they need is one moment, said Nate Kopunek. "We need to be good enough to execute in those moments and we definitely can. With that being said, the fight, and work rate for the full 90 is something we will build off of as we now prepare for our Horizon League match and home opener on Saturday." 

The Titans (0-4) had a total of eight shots with two each from sophomores Mateo Phillips and Tim Allos.

Detroit Mercy was able to create three quality scoring chances for the equalizer in the second half. During the 66th minute, senior Saeid Jannoun found space inside the box and redirected a cross with a diving header that sailed just wide to the left side of the goal.

The Titans then got a corner kick chance set up off a solid run by Allos in the 77th minute. He then took the ensuing corner kick cross and fired a shot wide to the right side.

With under a minute remaining in the game, sophomore Guershom Sylvain hit a header off a long ball into the box that floated toward the back line but ND goalkeeper Byan Dowd was able to extend and prevent it from going into the net to preserve the shutout.

Detroit Mercy returns to Titan field for the Horizon League opener against Green Bay on Saturday, Sept. 9 at 7 p.m.