No. 23 Hoosiers top the Irish
IU’s true colors shone through for one of the first times this year in Wednesday’s 3-0 victory over Notre Dame.
“It was definitely a confident booster for us, and we just needed to get one in the back and I knew the flood gates would open after that,” senior Darren Yeagle said. “We just needed to get one.”
No. 23 IU beat Notre Dame by three goals Wednesday to bring them to 7-4-1 on the season.
The Hoosiers made up for the goals they lacked in their first 45 minutes of play during the first 17 minutes of the second half.
IU coach Mike Freitag continued working on fitting his team puzzle pieces together.
Freitag substituted sophomore forward Alec Purdie into the game for junior forward Andy Adlard, while senior midfielder Lee Hagedorn replaced junior midfielder Daniel Kelley.
Adlard, who has not started the past few games for Indiana, had more than a half of playing time, with 66 minutes.
The first goal for the Hoosiers came off Notre Dame’s own goal during forward Will Bruin’s free kick.
The Hoosiers then showed who was in charge of the pitch when Yeagle put a slow roller into the net to send IU ahead 2-0.
“The ball was bouncing, and their sweeper wanted to head it back to their goalie,” Yeagle said of his goal. “The goalie told him not to, and he just headed back and I chipped it over the goalie’s head.”
Just four minutes later, Indiana pulled away from Notre Dame when Will Bruin netted his seventh goal of the year.
The offense wasn’t the only area that was clicking, however. The Hoosier defenders also produced, allowing only nine shots and three shots on-goal.
“We covered for each other well today,” senior back Ofori Sarkodie said. “We were able to get numbers out and really maintain position int heri half and put them under pressure. We always had a second guy their to clean things up and I think that’s why we were so successful today.”
Although freshman goalkeeper Luis Soffner only saw three saves, he did see some excitement, with a diving grab to keep the Irish’s Michael Rose’s shot out of goal.
“I’m doing whatever I can to help the team keep the ball out of the goal,” Soffner said. “I had to try to help our team a little bit tonight, but, otherwise, the team took care of it. The defense was solid and the offense produced some goals.”
With Soffner earning his sixth shut-out of the year, he saw his first back-to-back blank sheets of the season.
“This was one of the first games we played in where we actually represented IU soccer,” Yeagle said.
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