Stanford led Notre Dame 2-1 with 12 seconds left in their first-round matchup in the ACC men’s soccer tournament Wednesday night.
The Cardinal won 3-2.
The Irish scored on an indirect free kick from inside the penalty area to tie the game with 10 seconds left as Mitch Ferguson’s shot deflected off a Cardinal defender and past goalkeeper Rowan Schnebly, whose time wasting had drawn a yellow card to set up the free kick.
Dylan Hooper bailed out his keeper, though and even avoided overtime.
When the Cardinal kicked off to restart play, Hooper took the ball inside his own half while his teammates ran downfield. He dribbled past one Irish defender and launched a left-footed Hail Mary before crossing the midfield stripe. Improbably, it hit the back of the Notre Dame net.
Notre Dame keeper Collin Travasos appeared to have a beat on the ball as he backtracked toward his goal line, but seemed to let it go by, thinking it’d go out of bounds. Instead, it tucked into the upper right corner of the net, giving the Cardinal a lead with two seconds left.
Hooper told the school’s athletics site that the shot was “probably the highlight of my career.”
Notre Dame’s own Hail Mary went wide of the net as time ran out.
“I’ve seen a lot and have been in a lot of games, but I don’t think I have ever seen anything like that at the end of the game,” Stanford coach Jeremy Gunn told GoStanford.com.
Stanford had taken a 2-1 lead just five minutes before the sequence when Will Reilley converted a penalty kick after an Irish handball. Jackson Kill also scored for the Cardinal in the first half, equalizing after a Stanford handball in the box gave Notre Dame a penalty that Matthew Roou converted.
Stanford will travel to South Carolina to face No. 2 seed Clemson at 11 a.m. Sunday in the second round.
