Indiana men’s soccer will look to return to the win column against Trine University following a narrow loss against Northwestern.
The Hoosiers dominated possession and created many chances against the Wildcats, but Northwestern’s 25th-minute goal was enough to give Indiana its second conference loss of the season.
Indiana struggled in front of the opposing net early in the season, and those struggles returned against Northwestern. The Hoosiers failed to score in the match despite registering 21 shots, with only three of those shots being on frame. Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley said his team was disappointed with the result and failure to score a goal, but he doesn’t think they are lacking confidence.
“Just a little frustration, but we’ve had that throughout the year,” Yeagley said Wednesday. “Goals have been difficult to come by, but we’ve obviously been able to get through those moments and find ways to score, and I’m confident we can continue to do that.”
Indiana will now take a small break from its conference title race to face off against Trine, marking the third time the schools will face each other. The Hoosiers have defeated the Thunder in their two previous matchups, including a 3-0 win in Bloomington last season.
Yeagley said Friday’s match will be an opportunity for players who haven’t been featured much this season to get some playing time.
“It’s an opportunity to give a lot of guys minutes and fine-tune some things,” Yeagley said Wednesday. “It’s parents weekend so it’s a great opportunity for families to see their kids play, and more so than our typical four or five subs.”
This is also an opportunity for these players to earn playing time in future matches this season.
“There will be opportunities for some of these guys to get 70, 90 minutes,” Yeagley said Wednesday. “If we need them in this latter stage of the year, this will be great for us to have confidence, and for them to have confidence themselves they can go do the job.”
Yeagley said scheduling this matchup for the latter part of the season is helpful for the team overall.
“Just a lot of good positives on why we do it this time of year,” Yeagley said.
The match is set to kick off at 6:30 p.m. Friday at Bill Armstrong Stadium. It will be streamed live on Big Ten+.
Follow reporters Leo Paes (@Leordpaes) and Jovanni Salazar (@jio_duz_it) for updates throughout the Indiana men’s soccer season.
