From the get-go Friday night's game against Clemson looked as if it would be a little, ironic. In a game that eventually landed the Hoosiers 3-0 this season the outcome coincidentally ended in a 3-0 victory.
The first instance of ironic activity occurred in the second minute of the first half. Sophomore Eriq Zavaleta netted a header from a pass coming into the box from a pair of hands instead of a pair of feet.
After an early attack from Nikita Kotlov, the Hoosiers earned a throw-in on the left side of the field near the corner flag. Kotlov took a running start and hurled the ball inside the six-yard-box just off of the keeper's front post.
Zavaleta used his height and physical nature to his advantage and muscled through the defensive pack to connect his head with the ball just before the keeper could reach it.
The ball flew off Zavaleta's head and into the near post netting.
"Nikita threw a perfect ball in and throw-in passes are tough to finish because you are not facing the goal," Zavaleta said. "But just a good ball into the box in general, whether it be from the hands or the feet is what I'm looking for."
The rest of the first half consisted of repeated attacks from the Clemson forwards. While outshooting the Hoosiers 6-to-4, the Tigers connected with Indiana's goalpost twice. One other shot skipped past Soffner on a deflection and was cleared by Indiana midfielder Harrison Petts.
Indiana looked to counter the Clemson pressure by attempting to maintain possession of the ball in the middle-third of the field.
The second ironic value to the game would be the complete switch in offensive intensity from Clemson to Indiana at halftime. After being outshot in the first half the Hoosiers returned in the second outshooting the Tigers 10-to-3.
Senior goalkeeper Louis Soffner was barely tested in the second half, and did not even have a chance to touch the ball until midway through the half.
"That second half it did feel good to sit back there," Soffner said. "We obviously solved some of our problems and we started playing really well. Not much action means our team is doing things really well."
Uniting with the lopsided shot column came the next ironic activity from the nights matchup: freshmen combining to complete a scoring attack on an upperclassmen goalkeeper, and Zavaleta recording his fifth goal in three games to halve his season total from last year.
I felt like in the first half we were not in good rhythm at all," IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. "But we meshed after some very simple corrections at half by talking to some players and making some changes. The second half was what you like to see."
Freshman Femi Hollinger-Janzen connected with freshman Kyle Sparks for some offensive activity that led to the 2-0 buffer.
The ball played up through the field to the right foot of Zavaleta. The sophomore flicked the ball through two Clemson defenders to T.J. Popolizio. Popolizio played a through ball to Hollinger-Janzen who then hopped the ball over a sliding Clemson defender and continued his dribble to the goal.
He released a shot well inside the box which deflected off the chest of goalkeeper Cody Mizell.
Sparks, waiting for the rebound on the top of the six yard box, seized the opportunity with the inside of his right foot.
"Sparks has been working since day one," Soffner said. "Finally he got a shot in the spring and made some goals. But we were joking with him after he made tonight's goal that you don't get your first official one until it's the regular season."
Then five minutes later Zavaleta found the net again in the 76th minute floating a rebound over the Clemson goalkeeper to finish the game with a 3-0 shutout.
"Nikita makes a great play by beating his defender and knocks a rocket off the cross bar," Zavaleta said. "It was a fortunate bounce while their defender was being lackadaisical in his clearance. I saw that opportunity and worked hard to get there and finish it."
Despite the rest of the ironic play happening throughout the game it is fair to point out that the most ironic thing about this second half explosion of offense was that it happened while the Hoosiers were down a man.
In the 72nd minute of the game, sophomore Dylan Lax was sent off with a red card after initially being shown the yellow before medical personnel arrived to the injured player.
Zavaleta commented further on the confusion.
"It was a tough tackle and its part of the game but obviously there was no intent there," Zavaleta said. "It's tough to come back into the game to keep the level high but I think our guys did a good job of keeping our composure and showing our class to finish this game out"
