Hoosiers defeat Kentucky 2-0 with 2nd-half goals

After playing into the wind and dealing with their corner kicks blowing away from the goal for the first 45 minutes, the IU men’s soccer team went into the locker room drenched, cold and without a goal.

But as IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s players switched sides for the second half, so did their luck.

And after two goals, along with a shutout by junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner, Indiana scored a third-straight win, 2-0 against Kentucky on Wednesday.

In the first half, Kentucky outshot the Hoosiers 4-2 and had eight corner kick opportunities, though the Wildcats didn’t capitalize on any of them.

Even though his players were playing into the wind during the first half, Yeagley had some words for his players in the locker room.

“The conditions were tough in the first half, but we had a good talk with a lot of emotion at halftime,” Yeagley said. “The weather was tough, and we certainly weren’t playing well, but we came out with that fighter mentality and found ways to get things done. We’ve done well at that this year.”

Oftentimes, that has been because of the foot of freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta. Wednesday was no different.

Just more than 10 minutes into the second half, the Hoosiers had an opportunity for a corner kick. After the ball sailed through the air, bouncing around between both teams, a Kentucky player inadvertently touched the ball with his hand, giving Zavaleta a penalty kick opportunity.

He capitalized, scoring his team-leading eighth goal of the year.

“We’ve had a couple PK’s this year, but we’ve yet to hit one,” Zavaleta said. “But I wanted to step up, and nothing was going to stop me, weather or not, and I buried it.”

Zavaleta and his teammates controlled the ball for most of the rest of the second half, holding Kentucky to defending for much of the rest of the game while giving themselves more chances to tack on another goal.

With 8:33 left, sophomore midfielder Nikita Kotlov gave his team the insurance goal as he bent the ball into the top right corner of Kentucky’s net, bringing the sparse crowd of Hoosiers fans to their feet.

“The defense didn’t follow me,” Kotlov said. “I took a touch, I saw I had room for the shot and I took it, and it went in. I was trying to curl it away from the keeper, and I think I knew it was in as soon as I saw it go up.”

After its three-game losing streak earlier in the season, Indiana has now won three straight, all in a similar fashion. With zero goals in the first half in any of those games, the Hoosiers haven’t played their best soccer, but they’ve found a way to win, Yeagley said.

“We had a pretty quiet locker room after the game, but I think our guys knew after our talk that the second half was a lot more like how we normally play,” Yeagley said. “We still found the result we wanted, but each team we play the rest of this year is going to be better and better, and that could hurt us.”

Zavaleta, last week’s Big Ten Player of the Week, was all smiles after the game, feeling positive about his team’s turnaround in the second half and his game-winning goal.

“I came in wanting to help the team, no matter if I get goals or if it’s someone else,” Zavaleta said. “But we’ve got to get wins. It’s coming down to crunch time, and we’ve got to win games, both Big Ten and non-conference. It was good to get another goal and good to get another win.”