Senior forward Palmer Ault raises his hand up on the far side of the pitch. The flag stick is on his right side as he lines up to take the corner -kick. The Noblesville, Indiana, native takes three quick steps forward before he delivers a low-lofting ball.
Sophomore defender Josh Maher goes down to the ground while he reads the angle of the ball flying toward him. Once the ball reaches him, he sticks out his head and redirects it out while caught between a series of Wisconsin defenders.
Junior defender Alex Barger was ready for the opportunity, and was in the right spot at the right time. He lines up the ball and fires away with his right, non-dominant, foot. The ball deflects off the top of the cross bar before careening backward into the vacated net.
Barger pumps his fist in excitement as he runs toward the spot where Ault had just taken the corner.
This goal was Barger’s third of the season, and one that ignited the Hoosiers in just the 21st minute of the match.
“We’ve had a lot of emphasis on restarts,” Barger said postgame. “Yeagley and the coaching staff kept telling us to practice and rehearse it in training. I was fired up getting the goal on the first restart of the match.”
Ultimately, Indiana ran away with the game and secured a 4-1 victory over Wisconsin at Bill Armstrong Stadium on the back of its three starting defenders.
Barger, Maher and redshirt junior Breckin Minzey all pitched in on the goal sheet Tuesday night. But they also set the tone for freshman goalkeeper Judewellin Michel.
Michel, making his first Big Ten start of the season, excelled in the net. He kept Wisconsin’s attack shut down until the visitors finally broke through in the 84th minute on a goal that deflected off a fellow Wisconsin player before going in the net.
The Badgers only had seven total shots and three shots on goal when the game finished, with one goal to show for it.
Despite the goal, Yeagley was ultimately pleased with Michel’s effort and discipline in the net against a Big Ten opponent.
“Jude used his voice and length well tonight,” Yeagley said. “He didn’t have to do a lot but his size came into play tonight on crosses and balls that were picked up by the wind. It was important to get Jude reps in conference play; Holden (Brown) getting a break gets him more rested down the stretch too.”
While Michel kept the Badgers at bay in the first half, Indiana’s attack took over in the second half.
The Hoosiers scored two goals on two free kicks, both guided by Ault.
The first free kick was a lofting ball from Ault that found the cutting Minzey. The redshirt junior put the ball past redshirt freshman goalkeeper Luke Shrivers. The goal by Minzey extended Indiana’s lead to 2-0.
Three minutes after the Minzey goal, Wisconsin committed another foul. Senior midfielder Ola Arntsen also picked up a yellow card on the play, which led to another free kick from the right-center box in the 50th minute.
However, this time, Ault’s free kick intentionally rolled under the pair of jumping Wisconsin defenders –- something Yeagley said Indiana had scouted leading up to the match.
The ball trickled toward the box, where Maher fielded it and pushed it home with his right foot.
Postgame, Yeagley joked that seeing Minzey and Maher’s goal on the restarts was his “favorite part of the match.”
“It was my favorite goal scoring night of the year, especially against a team that is restart-driven,” Yeagley said. “The execution all-around on restarts changes the game; it adds a different element. We’ve been working hard on those scenarios and it felt great to see those guys get rewarded.”
This goal was essentially the dagger — one that gave Indiana much more of a cushion.
Even junior forward Collins Oduro got in on the action with a goal in the 64th minute to pad the lead even more. He sped around two defenders and the oncoming Wisconsin goalkeeper to bury a shot while retreating from the open net.
Oduro’s goal allowed Indiana to pull out some key players like Ault in the 66th minute while senior midfielder Jack Wagoner, Oduro and Minzey came out in a series of substitutions in the 75th minute.
Yeagley said those players needed a break ahead of another crucial Big Ten matchup against Maryland on Friday night, something he touched on postgame.
“When you can get a few guys out of the game with an opponent on Friday night (three days later), it’s important,” Yeagley said. “That was definitely on our mind, and we have a lot of confidence with the guys at the end of our rotation. Once we got the series of goals in the second half, it made it easier to take care of things."
Follow reporters Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) and Mateo Fuentes-Rohwer (@mateo_frohwer and matfuent@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana men's soccer season.
