The first time IU men’s soccer played Northwestern this year, it ended in a scoreless draw after 110 minutes of play.
In the Big Ten quarterfinal Sunday, the Hoosiers and Wildcats were scoreless again through regulation. Except this time, sophomore midfielder Trevor Swartz headed in the game winner 59 seconds into overtime to advance IU to the semifinals of the Big Ten tournament.
Although the Hoosiers and Wildcats were deadlocked at zero for the entire regulation period, the style of play in the quarterfinal match was completely different from the first time these two teams faced off on Sept. 18.
Northwestern came out attacking in the first 10 minutes playing an open style game after just sitting back on defense in the previous meeting. IU Coach Todd Yeagley said his team did a good job solving the Wildcat’s game plan internally with a little help from the sideline as well.
“Their shape is different than when they played us earlier and we were just a little bit deep and weren’t able to sort out how to step to their backs playing somewhat of a 3-5-2 in their attack,” Yeagley said. “They’re a good enough team, they’re going to do that. I told our guys not to get frustrated. They have good players that will have a little bit of the ball.”
Northwestern had turned to the three-man backline toward the end of the year, and that became an integral part of their success, winning four of its last five games including knocking off No. 2 Notre Dame in that span.
Yeagley even responded with an early move off the bench as well to try and crack the Wildcat’s formation as sophomore midfielder Rece Buckmaster checked in for sophomore defender Timmy Mehl.
The seven-year head coach said Buckmaster is one of the better one-on-one players in the channel and the substitution got him higher up on the field as a right back and senior defender Billy McConnell moved over to center back.
“I just thought the matchup was better that we got Billy inside and Rece wide,” Yeagley said. “Rece could be more of an attacking option for us as our outside back.”
In the first meeting, the Hoosiers outshot the Wildcats 28-3, although just six of IU’s shots were on goal.
Swartz said prior to the game that team feels like they’re taking more quality shots now and not just firing them from all over the pitch like earlier in the season.
Sunday, the Hoosiers took 15 shots compared to the Wildcat’s six with four of those being on net.
The Hoosiers were consistently getting good looks in the final third after solving the Wildcat’s formation after the first 10 minutes but still nothing was able to fall until Swartz’ overtime winner.
“It’s always in the back of your mind, but I think we really felt a bit of confidence especially after the past few games, something was going to fall for us soon,” sophomore midfielder Austin Panchot said. “We just kept plugging away and we were able to get it done.”
