Penalty kicks haunt Hoosiers again

The whole season of two teams rested upon the shoulders of two goalkeepers as the NCAA tournament game between IU and Bradley came down to penalty kicks. The shoulders of Bradley goalkeeper Mike Haynes’ proved to be a bit broader as the Braves squeaked a win by the Hoosiers 5-4 on PKs. \nThe Braves and Hoosiers played to a 1-1 tie in regulation, which led to double overtime and an eventual win for Bradley. \nThis scenario might seem like one that doesn’t happen often, but a defeat due to penalty kicks is not new to the Hoosiers. IU lost in their previous contest to Ohio State on penalty kicks, which was for the Big Ten Championship. Santa Clara also defeated the Hoosiers last year on penalty kicks in the second round of the NCAA Tournament. \nIU coach Mike Freitag said penalty kicks are not the way they wanted to go down.\n“Soccer is a cruel game,” Freitag said. “Penalty kicks is a sad way to lose. I don’t think anybody in the world likes penalty kicks.”\nGoalkeeper Chay Cain shared his coach’s opinion of penalty kicks.\n“Penalty kicks are a cruel way to lose a game,” Cain said. “You go in with the best expectation possible, and you don’t always come out on the upside.”\nIt didn’t seem as if the Hoosiers would have to resort to penalty kicks with a goal just 1:37 into the game. IU freshman midfielder Rich Balchan straddled the right sideline before sending a strike to the middle of the field for waiting junior midfielder John Mellencamp, which led to his first goal on the season. \nCain and Haynes both weathered the storm in a game that was sloppy at best. Cain tallied four saves on the game, while Haynes tallied eight. \nAfter regulation, both goalkeepers tallied eight total saves in the two overtimes.\nIn what was their fourth appearance in the NCAA Tournament and first taste of play past the first round of the tournament, Bradley came out on top after the final kick. Braves coach head coach Jim DeRose summed up what the experience was like for his team.\n“For us everything was new,” DeRose said. “Being down a goal was new. Being here (in the second round) was new. And it sounds cliche, but at halftime we just said there’s 45 minutes left in our season. We can take losing 1-0, but we couldn’t take going out and saying we didn’t work as hard as we could.”