When Notre Dame visited SU Soccer Stadium last season, there was a lot on the line.

Syracuse and then-No. 7 Notre Dame were vying for a trip to the second round of the Big East tournament. And with realignment making it the last tournament for the old Big East, the game was uniquely layered.

But for then-freshman goalie Alex Bono, it was a chance to show the Irish what it could have had. Notre Dame put Bono through the recruiting process while he was in high school, but decided to go in a different direction. Instead, the Baldwinsville, N.Y., native came to SU.

Bono’s first shot at revenge didn’t go as planned, ending in a 4-2 Orange loss and a tournament exit. But he and his team get another shot on Friday.

Syracuse (3-1, 0-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) will host No. 4 Notre Dame (1-0-2, 0-0-1 ACC) at 7 p.m. at SU Soccer Stadium in the Orange’s first-ever ACC home game. But the game means even more to Bono. He’ll look to showcase his talent and guide SU to a win, while in the back of his head he knows the Irish opted not to take him.

“Anytime you face a team that didn’t pick you, or you didn’t pick,” Bono said, “you have to show them why you didn’t go there or why they should have kept you around.”

It was no mistake that Notre Dame, one of college soccer’s storied programs, was interested in Bono while he was at C.W. Baker High School.

As a senior, Bono was rated by Topdrawersoccer.com the No. 1 recruit in New York state, as well as No. 51 in the country. ESPN Rise had him as the sixth-best goalkeeper and the No. 46 prospect in the country. And in four illustrious high school seasons, he led C.W. Baker to four Section III championships and two regional titles.

Any program, even one with a nation of players at its disposal, would have wanted Bono. But the Irish passed after inviting Bono to visit campus.

“It’s not that I was particularly attracted to Notre Dame, but they showed a lot of interest,” Bono said. “But they decided to go in a different direction after it all, and that’s just how it works.”

Up 2-0 in the 61st minute of last year’s game, Bono looked like the best player on the field. Notre Dame had tested him with 14 shots and six corner kicks, but was left with nothing to show for it.

Then something changed. The Irish scored two goals in 19 seconds and added another 13 minutes later. By the 76th minute, Notre Dame had a 3-2 lead and when Ryan Finley scored in the 84th its 4-2 victory was sealed.

Bono was impressive on the night, but the crippling 21-minute stretch erased an otherwise sterling performance.

The game, his first chance to beat the Irish, was gone in a flash.

“He was amazing in that game last year,” said backup goalie Andrew Coughlin. “We’ve been working hard, pushing each other every day this year and I know he doesn’t want a loss like that to happen again.”

The Orange doesn’t look the same as it did last season. With a new, younger lineup, beating Notre Dame is certainly less practical than it was a season ago. The Irish tied then-No. 1 North Carolina 1-1 on Sunday.

“We’ll have the toughest test we’ve had so far,” SU head coach Ian McIntyre said.

The two players that scored in the Orange’s 4-2 loss last season have since graduated. An assortment of underclassmen crack McIntyre’s lineup every match as the team is still searching for its identity four games into the season.

But the man in the net is the same. When Bono first saw ND on SU’s schedule, it stood out as a “revenge game.”

Because 10 months ago, revenge slipped through his fingers.

Said Bono: “They were definitely the best team we played last year and that was a tough loss. I really can’t wait to get back at them this season.”

Published on September 12, 2013 at 1:06 am

Contact Jesse: jcdoug01@syr.edu | @dougherty_jesse