Nikita Kotlov doubled the Hoosiers' lead in the 31st minute against Evansville Wednesday night. The junior midfielder scored from an extremely acute angle. IU Coach Todd Yeagley and senior goalkeeper Luis Soffner said the way Kotlov scored his third goal of the season -- in the Hoosiers' penultimate regular season home game -- is something they've seen often.
"He scores those in practice," Yeagley said. "He has an uncanny ability on that end line to make something. He shows like he's going to go to kind of a slot pass, and kind of swivels his hip. That's one of the moves he makes. He kind of shows he's going back inside, and then he closes his hips at the last second. There was just almost the ball space to get between the keeper and the post.
"Nikita has moments where sometimes the spectacular, he can make look easy."
Yeagley said he does not consider Kotlov's shot to be a half-chance.
"Instead of maybe trying to overpass that centrally, he saw numbers, saw 'I got a little angle here. Why not?' If you put it on frame, maybe it hits off the keeper and rebounds to our help.
"He showed the draw back."
Soffner said his teammate scoring a goal like that isn't news to him.
"I've seen that countless times the last three years," Soffner said. "He loves taking guys on on that end line. He's so effective at it, too.
"As a goalkeeper, you're expecting that it's going to get cut back towards the six-yard box. I couldn't see the exact angle from where I was, but that's a tough play. It's hard to hold your post as long as possible, especially when you're anticipating the ball to be cut back. You're trying to make a play on that. I would assume that the goalie was cheating, and Nikita's crafty like that. He's sneaky. He found a little hole and put it away. It's a nice goal for us. If the chance is there, put it away even if you have barely any angle. All credit to Nikita.
"Kind of unfortunate for the other goalie, but we'll take it"
