WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — In a match where chances came at a premium, it was Wake Forest which capitalized on its opportunities to defeat IU, 1-0, Sunday and advance to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament.
No. 16 IU and No. 1 Wake Forest had an equal amount of possession and chances on goal with IU having seven shots and Wake Forest five. However, it was a Wake Forest player, redshirt junior midfielder Ricky Greensfelder, who made his shot count as he blasted the ball into the goal in the 88th minute.
The Hoosier defense contained the Demon Deacons for the majority of the game. Wake Forest’s freshman midfielder Jack Harrison, who leads the team in points, was well marshaled by freshman left back Andrew Gutman.
“Andrew’s had a great freshman year and Jack’s got a great freshman year,” Wake Forest Coach Bobby Muuss said. I told Jack yesterday that ultimately the goal is that he doesn’t get a point to our goal and that you get a point in the goal. We did not see Jack Harrison’s best performance today and I’ll give Andrew credit.”
However, Harrison finally got the better of the IU defense as he started the move that led to the goal.
Harrison beat Gutman and got to the byline before sending a cross into the box. IU cleared the ball, but Wake Forest junior midfielder Ian Harkes got the clearance and fed the ball to the left side for Greensfelder to score the winning goal.
“It came down Andrew’s side, he shut him down well and then it kind of rotated and came back to Harkes,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “It was a phenomenal finish from the kid that scored. That was a big time strike and they had to earn their goal and that I’m proud of because they’ve got to score a great goal to beat us.”
IU made immediate tactical changes but was unable to find the equalizer.
“It’s tough to bounce in that scenario when there’s so little time left in the game,” Yeagley said. “We made the quick few changes that we needed to make, but it was two and a half to three minutes left and it’s tough to find a goal with that time.”
The Hoosiers did have some opportunities themselves as senior forward Femi Hollinger-Janzen and Gutman both hit the post in the first half.
“We were goal-dangerous tonight, but we lost some good rhythm when we could have had a few more possessions,” Yeagley said. “Looking back we could have been a little sharper, but we were dangerous when we got the ball 30-40 yards from goal.”
Though the Hoosiers lost, Yeagley is pleased with the performance as he said he feels the Hoosiers gave everything they had.
“I thought our team defended extremely well and frustrated a very good attacking team,” Yeagley said. “I did feel that it would be a 1-0 game and we were on the wrong side of that result today, but I do want to commend our team for the effort. It was a tremendous effort.”
