With almost its entire team in the attacking half of the field and trailing by one, Northwestern took a shot on IU sophomore goalie Colin Webb, who reached up and knocked it off the crossbar.
The ball flew straight at Wildcat midfielder Brandon Medina, who headed it into the net for the equalizer.
The goal came in the 89th minute and sent the game into overtime, where No. 17 IU would tie Northwestern 1-1 on Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
The Hoosiers (5-1-3, 1-1-1) controlled the flow of most of the game and outshot the Wildcats 19-12, but it could only muster one goal, which came on a penalty kick by sophomore midfielder Tanner Thompson.
Last week, Thompson missed a free kick against Rutgers.
“He needed to score that penalty,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “You miss two or have two saved. That’s hard to come back from psychologically, so Tanner is right on track. Another really good game from him.”
The goal was his second of the season, and after missing on a penalty opportunity earlier, he made sure he put this one in the back of the net.
“I was thinking it’s nice to get a second chance at it,” Thompson said. “(I was trying to) just stay focused and hit it clean. I was watching the goalie and where he was moving. Last time he jumped early on me, so I was making sure he wasn’t going the way I was going.”
IU had a goal disallowed in the first half by junior forward Andrew Oliver after offsides was called in the box. The Hoosiers had several shots in the span of a few seconds, but Northwestern All-American goalie Tyler Miller kept them out until Oliver’s. But the offsides negated it and kept the game scoreless at the time.
“I don’t know about the first-half goal,” Yeagley said. “It’ll be interesting to see if it was offsides. We’re having to earn them. The referee seemed very sure of himself. I asked.”
Oliver has played an important role in IU’s attack, and both he and his coaches think he’ll get his first goal of the season soon.
“Andrew was dangerous again,” Yeagley said. “He’s on the cusp. We say every game, once he gets one, who knows how many are coming after it. He’s taking pressure off of some of our other attackers. Even without scoring his presence has been good.”
Oliver had three shots Sunday.
“I’ve been feeling it every game,” Oliver said. “I’m waiting for it, and I hope when it does, it’ll open up a couple more.”
The late goal gave the team flashbacks to similar games from last year.
“We just didn’t manage the situations,” Yeagley said. “We had to put numbers back because they were putting eight guys 25 from goal. We didn’t possess well out of it. Our clearances weren’t as sharp as they needed to be, and our communication was poor.
“It’s disappointing to give those two points away. It’s frustrating.”
Miller made eight saves and made what Oliver called some “pretty incredible saves.”
Northwestern went to 4-1-4, 0-1-2 with the draw.
“One minute left, I’d like to think we can manage the game better,” Thompson said. “We have been so far this season. I thought we dropped too deep. We’d like to keep possession in our own attacking half. That’s the best way to manage the game, and we weren’t able to do that.”
