Men's soccer finishes regular season with win

EVANSTON, Ill. — The Hoosiers reverted back to an old habit on Friday, and that habit was winning games.

The wind off Lake Michigan was cold, but that wasn’t enough to deter the Hoosiers from putting on a show in Evanston.
 
It was a night of firsts for IU freshman goalkeeper Colin Webb.

In his second career start, the freshman earned his first shutout and Big Ten victory.

Webb made several saves that kept Northwestern scoreless in a 3-0 Hoosier conquest.

Despite a 6-11-1 record, the Hoosiers finished the season with their first victory in enemy territory.

“It felt really good,” Webb said. “It was a team effort. The guys all played well in front of me, and I just held it down in the back today.”

Indiana’s attack was dangerous early, and Dylan Mares was able to put the first goal away in the 34th minute.

After the Hoosiers peppered the goal with shots from Harrison Petts and Femi Hollinger-Janzen, Mares found his foot on the ball for a rebound after Hollinger-Janzen’s shot, and he sent the ball home.

The goal was Mares’s second of the season.

Northwestern quickly bounced back with a goal-scoring attempt when junior Eric Weberman got off a quick shot that Webb was able to get a stop on. The Hoosiers went into the half up 1-0.

Northwestern came out of the break looking to score, but the defense, with Webb at the helm, was able to divert all chances early.

Indiana’s first shot of the half came in the 67th minute and resulted in a goal.

A.J. Corrado sent a cross to Nikita Kotlov, who was able to send the one-timer into the back of the net.

“Nikita certainly could have had a couple tonight,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “But him getting on the scoring sheet — you know, it is November, and we like to call him Mr. November, so it’s good timing.”

The Wildcats were not ready to quit, despite being down 2-0.

Missimo recovered from Kotlov’s goal quickly and took a shot that forced Webb to dive to the left and make a save.

Minutes later, Missimo drilled a ball off the crossbar for the second time in the game.

The Wildcats’ pressure continued until they were quieted by IU’s Kyle Sparks, who scored the third and final goal.

Indiana was able to put the nail in the coffin in the 71st minute when Sparks took a pass from Kotlov in midfield and drove the ball through the open field to put it away.

Yeagley said it was nice to finally see his team smiling after the game.

With the win IU has secured the No. 5 seed in the Big Ten Tournament and will try to get revenge against Michigan on Wednesday in Columbus, Ohio.

“It feels really good going into the tournament with the big win,” Kotlov said. “They’re a good team, and we played a really good game today.

“We took advantage of our chances, and we did better on corners, set pieces and marking up and staying with our men, which was our problem all season, and if we keep working on that, we’ll be fine going into the tournament.”

Follow reporter Alyssa Extin on Twitter @alyssa_extin.