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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports men's soccer

Hoosiers find new scoring options in 5-2 win

Men's Soccer vs. University of Evansville

Will Bruin no longer charged down the field with the ball at his feet. Rich Balchan no longer defended the backfield. Andy Adlard no longer flipped after the goals.

Three IU men’s soccer players from last season were gone, now playing on their respective Major League Soccer teams. However, that didn’t stop the post-Bruin squad from scoring five goals in a lopsided 5-2 win against Evansville, its first of two spring season home games on Jerry Yeagley Field.

Senior Alec Purdie scored two goals and junior Joe Tolen also stood out. Tolen ended last season with momentum, scoring the game-winning goal against Northwestern and earning IU the Big Ten regular season title.

“People are looking at me to lead a little more,” Tolen said. “I really do like that. I’m trying to take advantage of it and just guide the younger players as much as I can.”

On Friday evening, Tolen played only the second half. But that didn’t stop him from scoring two goals in his first four minutes and assisting Purdie’s final goal.

Bruin, Balchan and Adlard combined scored 25 goals last season — Bruin owned 18 of them. IU coach Todd Yeagley said to produce those goals next year, the scoring will have to be spread throughout the team, not just one person.

“It’s not going to be another Will,” Yeagley said. “You don’t replace 18 goals. You do it by getting 10 to 20 to 30 percent more scoring from four to five players.”

Despite the 5-2 win, Yeagley said he still hopes to see a change in the team’s personality.

“We need to get a dominate personality,” Yeagley said. “We’re still not tough enough mentally and physically.”

Still, Yeagley sees promise in a team that lost three players to MLS, yet still beat Evansville 5-2.

“One game, five goals,” Yeagley said. “I’m not going to overreact that we’ve got solutions to 18 goals and (seven) from Andy, but I do feel we’re going to be pretty dynamic and have a lot of different ways to beat teams.“

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