Five years ago when Notre Dame won its first national championship on a chilly day in Chester at Talen Energy Stadium, two local high school kids were in the stands dreaming of their future.
They didn’t know each other yet, but Patrick Berneski and Senan Farrelly would end up becoming starting center backs for the same program they witnessed capturing a championship that December afternoon.
“That was when I decided that Notre Dame was my dream school,” said Farrelly, who was a high school sophomore at the time playing for Continental FC.
Berneski, a Philadelphia Union Academy defender in his senior year at Central Bucks South, had already committed to Notre Dame, where he’s in his fifth year with the program.