IU falls to No. 1 Akron, picks up FIU win

AKRON, Ohio – The No. 8 IU men’s soccer team split two games at the Akron, Ohio Tournament this weekend, falling 1-0 to No. 1 Akron on Friday and defeating Florida International 2-1 in a double overtime contest Sunday.

IU’s offensive woes continued against Akron in front of a record crowd of 2,443 at Akron’s Lee Jackson Field as the Hoosiers were shut out for the second time this season.  

“It’s a game we get better at,” coach Mike Freitag said. “You find out what you’re made out of. We played a very good team and we knew that. You’re playing the No. 1 team in the country at their place and you lose 1-0. We had chances to score and we have to put those in.”

The Hoosiers’ chances were limited, only producing two shots on goal and leaving much of the responsibility to freshman goalie Luis Soffner.  

Soffner pitched a shutout against the Zips until Akron’s Mike Nanchoff bent a 22-foot free kick past the Hoosier line in the 77th minute.

Freitag said the combination of not executing offensively and lack of possession was the equation to Friday’s loss.

“I don’t think we take care of the ball as well as we should,” Freitag said. “It’s hard to win it and then give it away and have to work like hell to defend. We may be the best defending team in the country because we have to do it too often. We just have to do a better job of taking care of the ball.”

Soffner agreed.

“You never expect them to score, but obviously you just try to get your back line pumped up,” Soffner said. “When they put some pressure on us, we just have to deal with it and hopefully the forwards and  will help us out a little bit and play as a team.”

The first half of Sunday’s match with FIU showed more of the same.  

The 0-0 halftime score, however, was broken midway through the second half on
sophomore forward Will Bruin’s third header goal of the year, compliments of a free kick from freshman midfielder Joe Tolen.  

The assist was the first of Tolen’s career.

With less than five minutes to play, FIU’s Steven Jair Cabas knotted the game up at 1-1, sending the contest to overtime.

“Most teams would have lost that game,” Freitag said. “To dominate the whole game and then give up a late goal, most teams would have lost. We found a way to win and walked away with a ‘W.’”

The win came six minutes into the second overtime when Bruin struck again.

“(Forward Darren) Yeagle played a through-ball and I started running for it,” Bruin said. “The goalie hesitated a bit and I gave it a toe poke and it went through. I finally got one with my foot.”

Bruin has four of the Hoosiers’ eight goals on the season and is the team’s scoring leader.  

“Will Bruin is a horse,” Freitag said. “He’s been kind of carrying this team on his shoulders. His will to not lose has shown through.”

IU’s record moves to 3-2-1 on the year.  

The Hoosiers head to Madison, Wis., on Friday to open the Big Ten season against Wisconsin and wrap up a five-game road campaign.

Now that IU is one-third of the way through the regular season, Bruin said there is work to be done.

“I thought we definitely had a chance to come out 2-0 this weekend,” he said. “We are beating teams we are supposed to be beating, but we need to start finding ways to beat teams that are better ranked – the Akrons, St. John’s and Wake Forests.

“We always play a good game, but there is always that one thing. The team will get a restart and score or we’ll miss a chance. We need to start taking advantage.”