In the first six matches of the Indiana women’s soccer season, the team scored its only three goals in one 20-minute span against Indiana State. On Wednesday night against a significantly weaker opponent in Trine University, Indiana scored three in the first twenty minutes en route to a 5-0 rout of the Division III Thunder.
“The shutout, scoring goals and a win,” head coach Erwin van Bennekom said after the match. “It’s all we wanted.”
The Hoosiers dominated from the first minute and got the opening goal within eight minutes of play. Indiana sophomore forward Jordyn Levy rolled the ball across for freshman defender Natasha Kim, who beat Trine sophomore goalkeeper Ashley Aschemeier to open the floodgates and finish off the 2-on-1 opportunity. It was Kim’s first goal as a Hoosier.
The next two goals of the match came from Levy just two minutes and 10 seconds apart from one another. The first was a stellar solo run, ending with a left-footed shot into the bottom left corner, and the latter was just outside the 6-yard box following a pass from sophomore midfielder Sydney Masur. Levy nearly had a hat trick, as the next shot she took went off the crossbar, and the sophomore had to settle for two goals on the evening.
Levy wasn’t the only one with a brace for Indiana on Wednesday. Following the third goal in the 19th minute, all the starters except for graduate student goalkeeper Bethany Kopel were subbed off, and the second unit played the remainder of the match. Kopel made the two required saves and added to her program record 24 shutouts.
Entering the second half with a 3-0 lead, the Hoosiers tacked on two more goals courtesy of redshirt freshman Ava Akeel in the 50th and 62nd minutes. Both went off her right foot and into the bottom right corner of the goal.
“Both of them scored two goals in the limited amount of minutes they played,” van Bennekom said. “I thought they both played pretty well.”
Indiana had 27 shots, 15 corners and 14 shots on goal compared to Trine’s four shots, three corners and two shots on goal.
This game came at the right time after Indiana had struggled offensively in the previous six games, albeit four of them were against other Power Five teams.
Van Bennekom was just as pleased with the way the second unit played compared to the starters considering the majority of the players hadn’t seen many minutes.
“I thought we should have scored a couple more goals,” van Bennekom said.
He said he was happy the bench players played at that high a level considering it’s a step above the training ground.
Even with all the offense, Indiana kept a clean sheet for the seventh game running. They are 90 minutes away from tying the program record for most consecutive minutes without conceding a goal.
The next 90 minutes won’t be easy, as No. 8 Penn State comes to Bill Armstrong Stadium at 1 p.m. Sunday for the Big Ten opener.
