North Carolina men’s soccer downs Notre Dame, 7-1

UNC graduate defender Riley Berge (33) celebrates after the match against West Florida at Dorrance Field on Wednesday Sept 30, 2026. UNC won 2-0.

North Carolina men’s soccer (6-2-3, 2-1-2 ACC) defeated Notre Dame (5-4-3, 2-3-0 ACC), 7-1, on Saturday evening at Dorrance Field.

The Tar Heels put up their most goals of the season thus far with an impressive offensive showing led by senior forward Joschi Schelb, junior midfielder Ryan Zellefrow, and junior forward Bertil Rygaard Hansen, each having at least three goal contributions.

“I mean, it was just fun. These guys being always available makes it easy to play with each other [Schelb and Rygaard Hansen],” Zellefrow said. “It’s always just more fun to combine and pass around a team and frustrate them as much as we can.”

Notre Dame opened the scoring early with a quick tap-in after a delivery from the left side of the pitch that beat two Carolina defenders in the box.

In the 28th minute, the Tar Heels bounced back with a header in the box from Joschi Schelb to draw up the game.

Bertil Rygaard Hansen and junior defender Luca Nikolai passed the ball around the box before Nikolai crossed the ball high across the box into Schelb.

Seven minutes later, Ryan Zellefrow dribbled in and out of defenders right into Notre Dame’s box before tapping the ball off to Schelb to give him his second goal of the game and the lead to Carolina.

Not even a minute later, the Tar Heels regained possession of the ball after Notre Dame’s kickoff and pushed into the defending box. With Zellefrow wide open on the left side of the pitch, he received the ball from sophomore midfielder Nico Loebus and put the ball into the bottom right of the goal, furthering the lead to 3-1 heading into the second half.

Carolina opened the second half with a goal from Rygaard Hansen 32 seconds after kickoff. Zellefrow marked his third goal contribution of the game with his assist to Rygaard Hansen.

The Tar Heels continued attacking Notre Dame’s third of the pitch as Schelb put up his third goal of the night thanks to another assist from Zellefrow in the 50th minute upon breaking into the opposing box.

Zellefrow and Schelb combined for another goal in the 57th minute, this time Schelb assisting into a Zellefrow goal to give each four and five goal contributions, respectively.

A penalty following a Notre Dame handball allowed Nikolai to strike the ball into the bottom left of the goal to give Carolina their seventh and final goal of the night.

The final whistle blew with 13 shots on goal and seven unanswered goals in a dominant display from the Tar Heels.

“We got a W tonight, that’s a fun one. But it would have been a W if it was 1-0 and we scored in the 89th minute,” head coach Carlos Somoano said. “So all we get is a W. You don’t get bonus points for that. So we’re going back to work. We’re going to train our rears off for this week and get ready for Pitt.”

The Tar Heels will face Pittsburgh on Friday at 7 p.m. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

From the source @dthsports | [email protected]