It was his third goal of the season and was enough to lead the No. 8 IU men’s soccer team to a 1-0 win against the No. 1 Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Wednesday.
It was only the second time Doody had scored directly off of a corner kick.
“I did it once when I was like 12,” Doody said. “Obviously I wasn’t trying to do that, I’m trying to do something close to that and make it hard for the goalie and everyone, but the mosh play you just want to whip in a hard ball closer to the goal than on a normal corner kick. I knew I hit it well, and then when no one hit it, I had a nice view of it so it was pretty cool.”
The goal came in the 19th minute and gave the Hoosiers (9-2-3, 2-2-1) a good feeling at the break against the Irish (8-4-2).
“When we went in to halftime we were feeling good,” Doody said. “Granted we were only halfway done, but we felt really good about the way we were playing.”
IU Coach Todd Yeagley said the mosh play on a corner kick is something the team had been working on.
“Rarely do you see it go directly in,” Yeagley said. “But you kind of freeze the keeper, and it’s hard to make plays there. We train that particular play, and we thought it would be effective.”
IU was the aggressor from start to finish, controlling both tempo and possession, something Maryland was able to do Sunday when the Terrapins beat the Hoosiers. IU put more pressure on Notre Dame attackers, forcing more turnovers.
“The boys refocused, and we did a lot better job with the details tonight,” IU sophomore goalie Colin Webb said.
Yeagley said the team’s performance in the first half was the best period of play he’s seen all season.
“Notre Dame is a top team,” Doody said. “I think it was a really, really good performance from us defensively. We didn’t really give them much. It was 10 guys running their butts off to make it really hard for them.”
Both Doody and Yeagley said the increase in energy was noticeable before the game and they expected a good performance. The Maryland loss hit home with the squad.
“You could see it in their eyes after they watched the video how disappointed yet fired up they were to play again,” Yeagley said. “This game couldn’t have come any quicker.”
With such a young team, Doody said the loss may have helped the team regain its focus and show the younger players they can bounce back with big wins.
“Sunday was an off game, and it didn’t get any easier playing these guys today,” Doody said. “The fact that it was so fresh in our memory helped give us more of an edge tonight.”
The midfielders kept the fast-paced attack going for IU all game. Yeagley gave a lot of credit to sophomore Tanner Thompson and seniors Kyle Sparks, Jamie Vollmer and Dylan Lax. He noted that he thought Lax was the best midfielder on the field.
“This was a good performance by us,” Yeagley said. “We were confident from the start. We had great energy to our game.”
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