IU men's soccer defeats New Mexico in exhibition match

It’s a good thing the IU men’s soccer team has been scrimmaging regularly in preparation for the upcoming season, because its Saturday night contest against the University of New Mexico was the only game experience it will have in preparation for the 2007 season.\nThe No. 7 Hoosiers made the best of it, earning a 1-0 win against the Lobos. In a game that featured a sloppy start, IU managed to go into halftime with a 1-0 lead after junior forward Kevin Noschang scored the game’s only goal. \nIU coach Mike Freitag said he was impressed by Noschang’s goal. \n“He handled his goal very well,” Freitag said. “There weren’t a lot of opportunities to score, but he took advantage of the opportunity, and that’s what we have to do.”\nThough the Hoosiers have had a limited amount of time to play together, junior midfielder John Mellencamp said his team was “meshing well” last week.\n“We’ve been scrimmaging a lot, and we’re starting to understand each other on and off the ball,” Mellencamp said. “The more we play together, the better we get, and we expect good things out of all our \nnew players.”\nNoschang said the field conditions were a challenge, but it felt good to play against some outside competition. \n“The field conditions were a little tough compared to what we’re used to playing on in practice, but we just tried to get quality play on and off the ball,” Noschang said. “The team worked hard, and we were hungry to play someone besides ourselves. We’re ready for Maryland.”\nIU will have the entire week to prepare for the Adidas/IU Credit Union Classic in which they will face the No. 9 Terrapins on Friday night and No. 1 UCLA on Sunday. Both matches will take place at Bill Armstrong Stadium.\nLast year, the Hoosiers got off to a slow start, with a 3-3-1 record to begin the season. After those first seven games, however, IU ripped through their opposition, going 12-1-2 to finish the season. This year’s team has many different faces, including seven freshmen who comprise the No. 2 recruiting class in the nation. The threat of a slow start still looms, however, due to the Hoosiers’ tough schedule. Three of IU’s first six games are against opponents ranked in the preseason \ntop 25. \nFreitag said the challenging opening schedule will be a welcome test for his team.\n“We play a lot of quality teams to open the season, and the season is a long haul. You take some bumps,” Freitag said. “I liked what we were doing (against New Mexico), and I think we’re prepared to play, but we schedule hard to figure out where we stand early.”