'The Luck of the Irish'

The IU men's soccer team gave up the most goals in a single game in the team's 33-year history Sunday, and junior goalkeeper Chris Munroe took all the blame.\n"I let the guys down," he said after IU's 5-4 Sunday to the University of Notre Dame. "There were a couple of good goals, couple of team defensive breakdowns, but at the end of the day, it's my responsibility to keep the ball out of the net, and I didn't do a good job."\nSenior defenseman Julian Dieterle said defensive play was an anomaly. \n"I've never given up five goals," Dieterle said. "Never. It's just one of those days. What are you going to do?\n"It won't happen again, though."\nDieterle said the blame belongs to the entire team, not just Munroe.\nThe No. 12 Hoosiers' Sunday loss to the No. 15 Irish was the second "disappointing" performance the players said they had this weekend during the Adidas/IU Credit Union Soccer Classic. IU tied the University of Connecticut 1-1 Friday night. \nThe Hoosier's loss to the Irish was a gut-wrenching, back-and-forth battle that featured two sets of consecutive goals that came within 20 seconds of each other.\n"I had never been in a game like that before," IU coach Mike Freitag said. "Many gray hairs popped out during it."\nIU outshot Notre Dame 19-12.\nThe Hoosiers had difficulties recovering after attacking offensively, which is something Freitag said is typically a strength of his team.\n"We're usually pretty good with the transition," Dieterle said. "But for whatever reason we were maybe a little slow. It's something we'll address this week, and we'll get better, I promise."\nTheir inability to recover on the defensive end resulted in four unassisted goals by the Irish -- a product of breakaways.\nThe Hoosiers were facing near defeat at the end of regulation when freshman forward/midfielder Darren Yeagle was tackled in Notre Dame's penalty box, giving IU a penalty kick with 11.7 seconds left. Senior midfielder John Michael Hayden kicked the ball past 6-foot-6 Irish goalkeeper Chris Cahill to tie the game 4-4. Hayden said he thought the momentum would carry IU to victory in overtime were it not for the one whom Freitag called "the kid."\nThe Hoosiers were torched all day by Irish forward Joe Lapira. \n"Everyone has their game," said Lapira, who netted four of the Irish's five goals, including the game-winner in overtime. "I guess today was mine. I was pretty lucky. We had plenty of opportunities today, and I was fortunate to finish mine."\nIn the 97th minute, Lapira, running down the left side of the field, tried to send a pass to a teammate and kicked the ball off the side of his foot. Lapira's pass didn't find his Irish teammate, but it did find the back of the net to end the game.\nLapira said "it wasn't a shot." Freitag said it was "the luck of the Irish."\n"We got a good team; today was just the Irish's day," Freitag said. "They just outplayed us today. I feel comfortable (that) if we play them again, it would be a different result."\nOn Friday, Yeagle said he was disappointed his team couldn't put away the Huskies.\n"We dominated the game," he said. "They're a good team. I'll give them credit. But we should have come out with the victory."\nIU outshot the Huskies 17-3 and got out to an early lead.\nYeagle scored the lone goal of the first half. At 7:33 remaining and with one Connecticut defender far to his right, Yeagle juked past diving Husky goalkeeper Matt Sangeloty and sent the ball high into the right corner of the goal. \nBut Connecticut tied it up late in the second half. With 16 minutes remaining in regulation, Husky midfielder Akeem Priestley recovered a rebound in front of the IU goal and booted the ball to the top of the net. On his way back to midfield, Priestley turned toward the IU fans with his finger over his mouth to hush the rowdy home crowd. \nIU made several attacks at the Husky goal at the end of the game but was never able to net the ball.