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(10/03/11 2:44am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After stopping every ball that came his way for almost 400 minutes in the span of four games, including three shutouts, senior Luis Soffner finally let one through. And then another. And after falling behind for the first time all season, the Hoosiers were never able to regain the lead Sunday, falling to Wisconsin 2-0 at the McClimon Soccer Complex in Madison, Wisc.In the 54th minute, Soffner and the Hoosiers faced a corner kick, one similar to those Soffner and his defenders had stopped every time for more than three games.As the ball flew in, Badger Nick Janus headed it off the cross bar, where it fell to fellow Badger Tomislav Zadro’s feet, and he kicked it past Soffner for the first time in 392:55 of game time.In games past, Soffner said he and his teammates would have cleared a ball like that, but “the ball just didn’t roll our way tonight.”Soffner had given up goals this season before. The goalkeeper gave up three goals in two games during the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament in South Bend, Ind. earlier in the year, as well as giving up a goal against Saint Louis in the Hoosiers’ first game of the season.In those three games, Soffner’s teammates also scored eight goals to help power IU to three wins. At Wisconsin, the Hoosiers just couldn’t get the goals to drop.“Simply put, we didn’t play our best tonight,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “We played well enough to create several chances, but we lacked a bit of an edge in that tight, physical game.”In the first half, the Hoosiers out-shot the Badgers 6-2, had five corner kicks and controlled the possession for much of the first 45 minutes, but they failed to capitalize. Yeagley, though, went into halftime with a good feeling, thinking it was only time until his team got something to fall.“We played pretty good, but our anticipation was a little off, and we didn’t have the edge we needed,” Yeagley said. “But I told our guys that we needed to go into the second half and continue to pressure them and just play a little sharper.”Things didn’t get any better in the second half. After giving up the first goal, the Hoosiers had a chance to knot the game 1-1 after Bushue was taken down in the box, giving IU a penalty kick. Sophomore Harrison Petts was elected to take the shot, but Wisconsin goalkeeper Max Jentsch dove down to the right for the save.As Yeagley and his team come back to Bloomington for a two-game home stand this week, including No. 8 Louisville and No. 2 Creighton, he said his players are hungrier than ever after the loss.“I wish we could play tomorrow, honestly,” Yeagley said. “But these guys are going to be hungry to play, and even though Louisville will be the favorites (in Wednesday’s game), it’s going to be a battle.”Soffner, too, will be ready for Wednesday’s game against Louisville, saying both goals he gave up Sunday didn’t phase him at all.“I don’t doubt myself one percent,” Soffner said.
(09/30/11 4:04am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Two years ago, as a junior soccer player at Neuqua Valley High School in Wisconsin, Patrick Doody hoped he would one day play college ball under Todd Yeagley.But he didn’t dream it would have been for Indiana.In December 2008, after six years on the sidelines in Bloomington as an assistant coach, current IU Coach Yeagley took the head coaching position at Wisconsin. He coached the Badgers for one season before eventually returning to IU.When he returned, several players with their sights set on playing for him in Madison, Wis., followed him to Bloomington, including Doody.“I loved Wisconsin,” Doody said. “It’s an incredible school, and a lot of my friends play on Wisconsin’s team. And it definitely would have been an option for me had Coach stayed. I was fortunate enough that when Coach took the job here, he was still interested in me.”As Yeagley settled back into Bloomington and began to build the Hoosier team that he’d lived around for much of his life, Doody was one player he hoped he could land.“Patrick was one I had my eye on when I was at Wisconsin and felt like he would be a big-time contributor, and as soon as I was here, that feeling didn’t change,” Yeagley said. “He’s doing a really nice job as a freshman contributing in a few different roles with his work ethic, his pace and his willingness to learn.”When the Hoosiers travel to Wisconsin on Sunday afternoon for IU’s second Big Ten contest of the season, both Doody and Yeagley will return to some familiar faces.For Doody, those will be his parents and cousins who live in Naperville, Ill., where he grew up, only two and a half hours away from Wisconsin’s campus.For Yeagley, those will be the players, coaches and staff members he recruited and worked with for his single season as a Badger — people whom he knew only briefly, but with whom he made lasting relationships.“It’ll have some emotions to it, knowing I invested a lot of time and energy and created relationships with the players and staff,” Yeagley said. “But in our sport, like any sport, you’ve got a job to go in and get a result. It’ll be nice to go back and visit Madison, but certainly we want to perform well and get results.”With Doody and the rest of his players on the No. 6 team in the country, Yeagley said he is confident this weekend’s game will simply be another testament to the hungry, determined team he now calls his own.“The game is going to be won between the white lines, and our preparation has been very good,” Yeagley said. “It’s going to be a confident team going in and a hungry team, and when we play with that passion and fight, we’re a pretty effective team at this point.”
(09/29/11 4:58am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Most students in their senior year of high school are preoccupied with completing college applications, worrying about scholarships, the last football game and who to ask to prom.But learning an entirely new sport?While IU sophomore defender Matt McKain’s parents enrolled him in nearly every sport available, he chose to focus on soccer, which he began playing at age five. He played for his high school team at Columbus North High School. But amidst the craziness of his senior year and after persuasion from some of his soccer teammates, McKain decided to take on a new sport: volleyball.The program, run by Coach Shannon Burch, was in its fourth year and had about 20 players, all of whom were seniors. But to Burch, McKain stood out.“He was always above the curve,” Burch said. “He was easily one of my top athletes for that season, and even just as a raw athlete who hadn’t played this sport before. He excelled from day one.”It’s a little-known fact to most outsiders, but volleyball players are allowed to use not only their hands and arms, but also their feet . Burch said in the past, other soccer players had tried using their feet in returning volleys or for passing, but most attempts had been erratic and unsuccessful.McKain started with an advantage and built on it.“Most guys had tried out kicking it, but Matt really caught on quick,” Burch said. “He had great ball control and was able to track the ball and position himself better than most.”IU redshirt freshman midfielder Dylan Lax , who met McKain in club soccer when McKain was six, played on McKain’s high school soccer team. Although Lax didn’t have time to play volleyball with his long-time friend as he wished, he still attended several of the games and said McKain looked like a perfect fit.“His competitiveness really stood out, whether he was on the soccer field or the volleyball court," Lax said. “He was always alert and ready to play, always a leader no matter what team he was on. And he adapted really well to a new sport, similarly to how he adapted when he came (to IU) and learned a new position.”With the help of McKaim, the Columbus North boy’s volleyball team put together a successful season. h ey qualii ed for the state tournament at the end of his McKain’s senior year. But in the end, one thing slightly more important stood in their way.“We had planned all year on signing up (for the state tournament) but when it got to that time, we realized that it was on the day of our graduation and, us all being seniors, we just couldn’t really make it work,” McKain said.Coming to IU with opportunities to play intramural sports, including men’s volleyball, McKain said he’s always wished he could get involved with another league simply because he loved the competition.But to him, his soccer team and soccer teammates always come first. After one season coaching him , that’s what Burch noticed the most.“He was a very wellconditioned athlete, but what was best was his mental attitude,” Burch said. “He knew when to be competitive, but he also knew when it was time to be there for his teammates."
(09/26/11 4:46am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>As sophomore A.J. Corrado’s pass came sailing through the air, senior Alec Purdie had just one thought on his mind as he stood by Penn State’s right goal post.Not when he would jump, not where in the goal he was going to try to put the ball — none of that seemed to matter.“I just wanted to get it past the goalkeeper and into the net,” Purdie said. He did just that. The lone goal gave No. 7 IU a 1-0 victory against No. 16 Penn State on Friday at Jerry Yeagley Field. The squad is now 6-0-2.Even though the win secured an undefeated start to their Big Ten season for the 21st straight time in program history, and even though it was its first win against a ranked opponent this season, it certainly wasn’t their best, IU Coach Todd Yeagley said.“It’s a great game. Penn State was very good on the night, but we can play much better,“ Yeagley said. “To get a result and knowing that we weren’t at our best was a positive for this team.”In the first half, Penn State’s defense had the upper hand. Going into the game, the Nittany Lion defense was yet to give up a first half goal this season, and IU’s offense had outscored its opponents 11-2 in the first half. “Penn State wanted to slow the game down with all those out of bounds at the get go,” Yeagley said. “They pressured us well, and our attack was not as fluid as it has been. It was good in bits and pieces, but we can play a lot better.”Indiana did have their chances, though. Less than six minutes into the game, it appeared that senior defender Chris Estridge headed in a goal off a corner kick, but the goal was called back due to an offsides penalty.It would be more than 70 minutes later when IU had another opportunity as great as the one from Estridge. They wouldn’t miss that time.Corrado lofted the ball from the top of the box over the heads of numerous Penn State defenders, right to where Purdie was jockeying for position. The ball connected with Purdie’s head and sailed into the back of the net.“The ball came across the top of the 18 and A.J. Corrado — a great guy for a pass, second to none — gave me a perfect ball, and I couldn’t miss it,” Purdie said. But without another shutout in goal by junior Luis Soffner, Purdie’s goal may not have been enough. Soffner has now logged a current scoreless streak of nearly 340 straight minutes in the box.“He’s been great for us this year,” Estridge said. “He’s been just a rock in the back and made a lot of huge saves for us.”Yeagley reiterated the same message, saying how much he’s seen Soffner grow in his two years as a starter for the Hoosiers.“Luis’s really feeling good right now, and for a player who’s been a two-year starter who’s had ups and downs in those two years, I couldn’t bee more proud of him,” Yeagley said. “He’s not the finished product yet, but our goalkeeping team has pushed him to a new level.”As Yeagley and his team go on to play more highly ranked opponents this season and in games with more at stake, they knew all along that this first Big Ten game was one they had to win.“Penn State was a ranked opponent, but our focus was starting the Big Ten season with a win, whether it was Penn State or whomever, ranked or not ranked,” Yeagley said. “The Big Ten regular season is a very different season, and after winning it last year, they (his players) really understand how hard it is and how good it feels to accomplish that.”
(09/24/11 4:05am)
In what looked like quite possibly would be their third overtime game of the season against a ranked opponent, redshirt senior Alec Purdie headed in a ball from sophomore A.J. Corrado in the 78th minute, giving the Hoosiers a 1-0 lead and eventual win over No. 16 Penn State Friday night at Jerry Yeagley Field. The No. 7 team in the nation moves to 6-0-2 on the season.
(09/23/11 4:34am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Against ranked opponents this season, the IU men’s soccer team has seen only zeros. IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s team has played then-No. 12 Notre Dame and then-No. 14 St John’s to 0-0 ties.But as the team opens its Big Ten season Friday night at home against No. 16 Penn State, Yeagley and his players hope to add both goals and a win to their resumé.“In both games (against ranked opponents) we had our chances to get results, and we’ve shown up in both games on the road in tough environments,” Yeagley said. “We’ve just got to be aggressive, get after them, dictate the rhythm and be sharp, and I think we do that well.”The No. 7 Hoosiers are entering this Big Ten season as the defending regular season champions after going 4-1-1 conference play during the 2010 regular season. Last season, IU beat Penn State, 3-2, at State College, Pa.But when it counted most in last year’s Big Ten conference semifinals, also hosted by Penn State, the Hoosiers fell 2-1 to the Nittany Lions after giving up two unanswered goals.Yeagley says this year’s team is different. It isn’t concerned with the past, and it doesn’t need any extra motivation to give Penn State its best come Friday night.“We aren’t worried about what happened last game, let alone last year,” Yeagley said. “This one has Big Ten ramifications and we want to keep our streak alive, but these guys are already mentally tough. It’s a different team, a different challenge.”Sophomore Jamie Vollmer will face his own challenge Friday night.Vollmer, who played his first years of college soccer at Butler, will face former teammate Julian Cardona, who also transferred after last season.“I’m excited. It’ll be the first time since the end of last year that I’ve seen him (Cardona), so it’ll be nice to play against an old teammate,” Vollmer said. “But at the same time, we’re in for a good game against them. They have five wins, too, so it’ll be a tough way to start out the Big Ten season.”Through seven games last season, IU was just 4-3 with 14 goals to its name. But this season, the Hoosiers have started the season with a 5-0-2 record and 16 goals, which they credit to their speed at the start of games.The team has outscored its opponents 11-2 in the first half this season, but with Penn State shutting out its last four opponents and yet to give up a first-half goal, Yeagley said getting out to a quick start against the Nittany Lions will be Friday’s key.“We always want to be the aggressor every game, but we also have to be consistent for 90 minutes,” Yeagley said. “So far this year, our mentality has been rewarded. It’s shown that we’re starting games ready to roll.”It’s that fighting mentality, Yeagley said, that will be the difference Friday. With four Big Ten Player of the Week awards in four weeks and the Big Ten leaders in points, goals scored, assists and saves, the Hoosiers will come onto Jerry Yeagley Field on Friday night with a target on their backs, Yeagley said.But even without all the accolades and awards, Yeagley said his players know that pressure for the IU men’s soccer program is second nature.“We talk to the team all the time. Whether we’re unranked or number one, IU is always going to have a target,” he said. “It’s why people come here, to get every team’s best, and it really makes our team better in the end.”
(09/20/11 2:13am)
Through the first four weeks of the IU men's soccer team's season, a fourth member of the team, senior defender Tommy Meyer, has been named Big Ten Player of the Week.
(09/15/11 7:31am)
On the current IU roster, five former high schools are represented by at least two or more current IU soccer players.
(09/15/11 4:37am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>It can be scary.New school. New team. Nervous jitters because you don’t know anyone, if you’ll get along with the people around you or if it’s really the right fit.But several players on the men’s soccer team haven’t had to make the transition to IU’s campus and soccer program alone.Eleven of the 28 players on this year’s roster played at least part of their high school careers with someone else on the team. Four schools around Indiana and one in St. Louis contributed multiple Hoosiers to the team.It’s not necessarily a goal of IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s staff to bring pairs of players in together, he said, but it helps.“When we recruit, we recruit the best players from around the state and the country according to our needs as a team,” Yeagley said. “But it’s worked out that there’s more talent from around here, and that’s boded well for us.”Senior Tommy Meyer and redshirt juniors Chris Haffner and Luis Soffner can trace their playing days back to their early teens when they played U-10 club soccer together in St. Louis. The trio joined forces with former IU soccer star Will Bruin at the club level when they were 14, and the bonds began to form.But Bruin played for De Smet Jesuit High School while the other three played for St. Louis University High School, so when it wasn’t club season, the three players from SLUH grew even closer, learning how each other played and learning their tendencies both on and off the field.When senior year rolled around and it came time to start narrowing down college choices, the three shared the same sentiment about whether they should all chose the same school or part ways.“We talked about it a little bit, because IU was after all three of us, but it wasn’t a deciding factor,” Soffner said. “IU was the only school we all had in common, but it turned out to be the right fit.”Each player took separate college visits to other schools around the country, but when it came time to visit IU, they made the trip together. That was when they realized they had to take advantage of a great opportunity.“After our trips to IU, we started saying, ‘Would you guys really want to do this?’ Haffner said, “It was obvious to us that IU was an opportunity you couldn’t pass on.”For Meyer, Indiana meant something more to him than it did to the others.By committing to IU, he followed in the footsteps of his father, who also played IU soccer.“There was just that tradition,” Meyer said. “My dad played there, and I pretty much grew up around it, and once I had an opportunity, there wasn’t any turning back.”Bruin was the first to declare his college choice during the players’ senior year. Knowing in advance that he was one of the best players they had ever played with or against, the three SLUH players all knew that joining forces with him again could be pretty special, Soffner said.“Will kind of pulled the trigger,” Soffner said. “We knew he was one of the best, and his commitment was a helpful hint that IU might be the place. We all narrowed our vision, and it was almost a chain reaction.”For Soffner, as he was narrowing down his choices between IU and two East Coast schools, it came down to not only where his close friends were going, but what was right for his family.“Both my parents work, and with being only three or four hours away, it was a lot easier on them to come and see me, and they could travel with the other families, “ Soffner said. “It just felt like home.”When they all arrived at IU, they realized they had made the right choice.“When we came to IU, with the tradition of the program, it was really pretty overwhelming,” Haffner said. “But having those other guys with me, going through the same thing together, it put me a little more at ease and made everything much more comfortable.”Yeagley said he worried, though, that forming another team with groups of players from the same high schools might be a tough task.“There could often times be a problem with guys not getting along or only associating with guys they’re familiar with, but not this group,” Yeagley said. “These are all personable kids, and they all get along with the entire team.”After three years in Bloomington, the feeling is the same. Although working with a different set of players and coaches than they did in high school may have changed each of their games a little bit, they said they still feel that coming here together has always given them an edge on the field.“When you’ve been playing within twenty yards of someone for six, seven, eight years, you really get to know them,” Soffner said. “We’ve got that inner connection, that family feeling, and it’s great to know you have guys to fall back on.”
(09/14/11 3:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After roughly half the men’s soccer team’s scoring was lost to the MLS when former Hoosier Will Bruin was drafted by the Houston Dynamo, one concern was, simply, who would score?IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s team has met the challenge in full stride. After five games, the team sports a 4-0-1 record, the tie coming in a tough battle against then No. 12 Notre Dame.Through five games with last season’s Sweet 16 team, the Hoosiers were only 2-3, with all three losses coming to unranked opponents.In those five games, Bruin made up nearly half of IU’s production with four of their nine goals. Bruin also accounted for 18 of the team’s 37 goals last season.But this season, Yeagley has witnessed several new stars rise to fill Bruin’s gap. The team has already combined for 13 goals in five games this season, even with the shutout tie against Notre Dame. Senior forward Alec Purdie has taken a leadership role, with four goals thus far to lead the team, including two in the team’s win over Bucknell.Since the team faces four ranked opponents in its next six games, fans will have a good barometer to see if the team’s offensive firepower can continue.
(09/12/11 4:17am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After losing almost half of their offensive production in the offseason when Will Bruin left for the MLS, the IU men’s soccer team faced a monumental question going into this season: who would score?But after this weekend’s Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament, the Hoosiers may have found their man. He played under the spotlight of his senior season and just miles away from his home in Elkhart, Ind. Senior forward Alec Purdie scored three goals for the weekend, powering his team to wins against Bucknell and Denver for the tournament title.Friday night, it was Purdie’s quick start that propelled IU to its third win of the season. Purdie scored his first goal of the night in the 20th minute in a scramble around the Bison goal, rebounding a shot from sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts.Just three minutes later, Purdie capitalized again with his second goal of the game and third of the season.“Purdie played really well all weekend,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “He just does a great job at being effective, and when he’s on, he’s tough to deal with.”Bucknell came out firing in the second half, though, and after an own-goal off an IU player in the 61st minute and another goal in the 69th, IU’s clean record seemed to be in jeopardy.With just 13 minutes left to play in regulation, freshman Eriq Zavaleta saw the ball roll his way and drilled it into the back of the net for his third goal of the season. It also earned the team’s third win of the season.In the latter match of the weekend, the Hoosiers again wasted no time. Senior Chris Estridge scored in seven minutes off an assist from Purdie. It was the fourth time the team has scored in the first 20 minutes of a match this season.Purdie made his mark again 23 minutes into the match via a misplayed ball by Denver goalkeeper Mate Aguirre.As Aguirre attempted to punch the ball away, Purdie stole the ball and sunk his third goal of the tournament.After a goal late in the first half, Denver tried to send the game into overtime in the closing seconds by bringing Aguirre up on a corner kick to gain the one-man advantage.They got off two shots that barely missed, and IU snuck away with its fourth win of the season, the team’s best start since 2005.Along with teammates Estridge, sophomore Jacob Bushue and redshirt freshman Kerel Bradford, Purdie earned a spot on the All-Tournament team for his early striking efforts.Yeagley said he hopes Purdie and his teammates continue striking early next weekend.They will travel to the East Coast for a match against St. John’s on Friday before ending their four-game road trip with Rutgers on Sunday.“We really try to get our guys to go into games ‘attack-minded,’ not wanting them to sit back and wait for the other team to act,” Yeagley said. “When you create chances and execute, you put teams on their heels — they can’t sit back anymore, and often times you score a few more.”
(09/10/11 2:32am)
After jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the first half off of a pair of goals from senior Alec Purdie, the IU men's soccer team fended off a late run by the Bucknell offense to win its third game of the season 3-2 Friday night in South Bend at the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament.
(09/09/11 4:01am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Three years ago, Mike Freitag and Todd Yeagley stood on the same sideline.They wore the same colors. They shared the same plays.They had one common goal: recruit the best for that eighth star.But in November 2009, Freitag was shown the way out, and then-Wisconsin coach Todd Yeagley, son of the legendary IU soccer coach Jerry Yeagley, was ushered in.On Sunday, Yeagley’s Hoosiers and Freitag’s Denver Pioneers will meet, but Yeagley and his team aren’t focusing on that match.Their mentality is to win the next one, Yeagley said, and that starts with Bucknell.After two wins last weekend in the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic against St. Louis and Dayton, the No. 10-ranked men’s soccer team is back in action this weekend in South Bend for the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament. They will face Bucknell and Denver.“Bucknell only lost two starters (from last season),” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “But our focus is on our performance. Our performance the first weekend and the second weekend was not necessarily our opponents, but our focus and energy.”The Hoosiers will kick off tournament action Friday at 5 p.m. against Bucknell, who is 2-1-1 on the season. This match will be IU’s first meeting against the Bison and the second time the team has ever played an opponent from the Patriot League.Forward Alec Purdie grew up near the South Bend area. He’s made the trip close to his hometown of Elkhart for a few years now. The senior said he’s looking forward to one last homecoming.“Obviously, I’m expecting two wins, but hopefully there’s a good crowd to come home to, like normal,” Purdie said. “There’s always a good turnout for the team. Four wins under our belt in a row would be huge, but right now, we’re focusing on Friday night, on winning against that team.”IU will then finish tournament play in South Bend on Sunday when the Hoosiers face Freitag and Denver at 11:30 a.m.But Yeagley and Purdie don’t view the game as any sort of rivalry.“I’ll chat with (Freitag) and catch up,” Purdie said. “But at the end of day we’re just looking to get another win.”Yeagley has faced Freitag only once before — in Freitag’s final season, when Yeagley was in his first season with the Badgers.“You’re looking at executing and winning games that you don’t even take a second to think who you’re playing against,” Yeagley said. “It’s about the players and the competition and the game. It’s not about the coaches, and it’s no different then it will be on any game.”Going into the weekend, IU has the offensive upper hand in both matches, having scored nine goals in three games this season, to Bucknell’s seven and Denver’s zero.“We can score a lot of goals every game,” Purdie said. “Nine goals — we probably had six, seven different goal scorers, so it’s spread everywhere. You can’t narrow it down to one person.”
(09/07/11 11:41am)
After a weekend where they scored nine goals in two games, allowing just one, and captured their home tournament title, the college soccer world took notice of an IU men's soccer team that may be better than many predicted.
(09/01/11 3:33am)
Transfer students Jamie Vollmer and A.J. Corrado will hit the soccer field this season for the Hoosiers.
(08/30/11 1:27pm)
The Big Ten announced Monday that Indiana junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Week after his shutout efforts against the team's first regular season opponent, No. 12-ranked Notre Dame, Saturday.
(08/26/11 4:20am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>IU men’s soccer’s hopes of defending their Big Ten championship took a sizable hit Dec. 29, 2010, when their leading scorer, junior Will Bruin, decided to forego his senior season and pursue a career in Major League Soccer.On Jan. 13, he was selected No. 11 overall by the Houston Dynamo.Bruin, who had 18 goals last season, provided almost half of his team’s offensive production of 37 goals. He was a force both on and off the field, and IU Coach Todd Yeagley said the team will greatly miss him this season.“The biggest thing he gave our team was confidence,” Yeagley said. “You knew as a teammate and as a coach that he was just one play away from changing the game with one goal, and he was an excellent passer as well. He made others better on the field, and we’re still working on filling the void of his dominant personality.”Junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner played with Bruin for two seasons and said the pair were good friends, but it was Bruin’s passion that made teammates admire his play on the field.“He brought this presence that no one else had,” Soffner said. “He almost played mean, and he had that desire and passion to win. You could almost see that fire in his eyes. When he played a tough team or wasn’t playing well, it fueled him, and everyone else kind of fed off him.”At the end of the game, whether his team was ahead, tied or even behind, Bruin’s teammates said they could count on him to make a play when it meant the most. Bruin scored three game-winning goals last season.“It gave us confidence, knowing that we had a guy who could make it happen at the end of the game if we needed a goal,” junior Joe Tolen said. “The confidence we had, knowing we had a player like him, made us a force to be reckoned with every time we stepped on the field.”Because he provided more than a third of the team’s points and almost half the goals, Bruin’s potential off-nights caused problems for the team, Yeagley said.“That’s what always worried me,” Yeagley said. “If Will wasn’t in form that night, the whole team lost confidence in big moments. We weren’t as much of a balanced team as we needed to be last year, but now we’ve got three to five guys who we feel could get a goal any night, and that does help.”The prospect that Yeagley could have a team of three to five confident scorers, plus Bruin’s production, had him very excited for the 2011 season, even after the Hoosiers fell last year 2-1 to eventual national champion Akron in round 16 of the NCAA tournament.But it looked likely Bruin might leave prematurely. After last season, many mock drafts had him being selected in the top 10, and some even as the second or third pick. Few players ever have the hype Bruin received, and it put Yeagley in a tough position as a coach.“It’s tough because I’m held to make Indiana successful and help my athletes achieve goals,” Yeagley said. “Will was at the top of the heap and had a fabulous year and a good opportunity to pursue.”It’s an opportunity Bruin has taken in stride. Since becoming the first Dynamo rookie to ever start on opening day back in March, Bruin has appeared in 21 of the team’s 26 games, recording four goals and one assist.Three of those goals came in a single game on April 29 against D.C. United. There he became the first Dynamo rookie to record a hat trick and the second youngest MLS player to do so, gaining Player of the Week accolades for his performance.Bruin and his Dynamo teammates will step on the field again Aug. 27, the same day that his former Hoosier teammates will play their first regular season game without him on the field.For Bruin, it will likely be just another day in his first season that has made him a contender for Rookie of the Year.For Yeagley and his players, it will be a day of answering questions and beginning to fill the massive gap Bruin left behind.“With a player like Will, he’s impossible to replace,” Tolen said. “There’s no way we’re going to have one guy score 18 goals for us this season. His presence is definitely going to be missing from this team — I mean, he’s one of the best players in the country — but we’re confident that we can get a combination of different players and pick up right where we left off.”
(08/23/11 2:28am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>Assistant coaches under famed former Indiana Coach Jerry Yeagley helped the Indiana men’s soccer program hoist the national championship trophy in both 2003 and 2004. Coaches Todd Yeagley and Caleb Porter returned only a few years after graduating to help their alma mater capture College Cup titles, which had eluded both men during their stints as leaders of the Hoosier soccer team.Last fall Porter, now the head coach at Akron, took up what had become a familiar trophy. But it was Yeagley, now the head coach at Indiana, who proved to be a stepping stone to Porter’s success. Porter’s Zips won a hard-fought 2-1 game against the Hoosiers, sending an old friend packing, en route to a 2010 Men’s Soccer National Championship.Yet even in defeat and with the dense connections between Porter, Yeagley and the IU program, Yeagley sees no rivalry between the Hoosiers and Akron.“They’ve had a good team and had a good run at it last year, and they’ve even had good teams in the past with some tradition,” Yeagley said. “But not as much as our program.”Even as defending national champions and two-time defending College Cup finalists, Yeagley feels Akron may not be the team to beat this year.“They’ve had some great players go through the past two years, but they lost a lot of players after last season,” Yeagley said. “They’re certainly capable, but we won’t focus on them. There are more and more teams each year that can win the championship, and championship teams can take form in many different ways. We’re still trying to find that form here.”It’s a form that will include several new players, including seven incoming freshmen and junior Aris Zafeiratos, a transfer from Bryant and Stratton College. After last season, IU lost four graduating seniors and leading scorer Will Bruin, who was drafted by the Houston Dynamo of the MLS. Redshirt junior Luis Soffner felt like the team needed a bit of a change.“I think last year we didn’t seem very united, and at times there were individuals who put themselves before the team,” Soffner said. “This year we’re very team-oriented. We’re trying to help each other rather than yelling at each other for mistakes, and I think in practice we’ve looked really good.”The returning players, who helped Yeagley win a Big Ten Championship and reach the third round of the NCAA tournament in his first year as head coach, have come back to Bloomington this season without a sense of defeat. The realization that they could play toe-to-toe with the eventual national champions seems to have made Yeagley’s players more confident going into this season, including redshirt junior Joe Tolen.“Anything can happen in a tournament. We know that Akron is a quality team — they went on to win the national championship — and had extremely talented players, but we don’t like to say they were better than us at all,” Tolen said. “And that loss was no different than another. Playing for IU, anytime you go out in the Sweet 16 you’re proud to make it that far, but there’s always going to be disappointment that we didn’t go further. And losing in general gives us that edge, that want to succeed next year.”That “want” is just what Yeagley is looking for. The coach, whose father is the winningest coach in NCAA men’s soccer history, brought six national championships to Indiana in his 31-year tenure. The younger Yeagley grew up around a winning tradition. He was on staff for two championships in 2003 and 2004, and he knows what it takes.“We’ve got to have players perform when the lights are on and the stage is there,” Yeagley said. “We’ve got to have players step up and take that responsibility and thrive in it, want it. We’ve got to get that swagger back, and it’s not there yet, but we’re working on it.”At the end of last season, it was Akron and Porter who had that swagger. They raised the College Cup after defeating Louisville in Santa Barbara, Calif.But the Hoosiers’ game two weeks prior showed Yeagley’s players that with hard work and motivation, there’s no reason that couldn’t be them in the future.“We gave them a battle, an absolute battle, and it could have gone either way, but it was theirs that day,” Yeagley said. “But it showed our players that we can play at that competitive level. We just need a heck of a lot of preparation and difference makers to step up when it’s time to do that.”The team that lost four seniors and Will Bruin was incorrectly listed. The IDS regrets this error.
(08/23/11 2:18am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After two exhibition games with moments of poor communication, near misses and tough goals, the IU men’s soccer team left the Shindigz National Soccer Festival in Fort Wayne, Ind., with only one goal and zero wins for their preseason slate.In front of more than 3,000 fans at the Hefner Fields Complex, the No. 17 ranked Hoosiers played to a 1-1 tie against No. 23 ranked Duke Friday night.The match marked the first time IU has faced a ranked opponent since losing to eventual NCAA champion Akron in the second round of the NCAA tournament last season.IU coach Todd Yeagley took his team into halftime of the Blue Devil game with a 1-0 lead after sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts connected on the second of his two shots in the 34th minute. Petts got the ball off a pass from senior Chris Estridge, who brought the ball up the left side before hitting Petts in the middle where he hammered it home.In the second half, the Hoosiers struggled as Duke gained more momentum on offense, firing more shots at freshman goalkeeper Michael Soderlund in his first game for the cream and crimson.After a punch save early on, Soderlund let one through in the 59th minute when Duke tied the game on a shot from junior Andrew Wenger.Indiana failed to capitalize on a late Duke mistake after a Blue Devil was called for a handball in the box. Senior Alec Purdie took the penalty kick attempt, but Duke junior goalkeeper James Belshaw came up with the save.In the Hoosiers’ second game of the festival, the team got off to a slow start offensively and struggled to communicate.“We’ve just got to get more chemistry out there,” Yeagley said. “We played an excellent team in Xavier. They were well-organized, and they had a better rhythm than we did. We’ll go back and look at our video and work on our mistakes, but you have to make those along the way to improve.”Yet after one half, Yeagley’s crew sat even with Xavier, 0-0, and showed more promise as the second half opened up. The team had opportunities on three early corner kicks, with the third from junior Joe Tolen nearly finding the net.Soderlund, who played the first 69 minutes in goal, showed more fire in the second half as well when he came outside the box to make a play on the ball as Xavier junior Luke Spencer closed in on the Hoosier goal.The two got tangled up in the 59th minute, and Spencer fell hard, resulting in a yellow card for the freshman goalkeeper.But 20 minutes later, in the 79th minute, Xavier sought revenge against senior goalkeeper Nate Mitchell. Xavier freshman Darin Kruzich sent a long cross from the left side in front of IU’s goal, and the ball sailed into the net off Mitchell.IU failed to equalize Kruzich’s goal, losing the game 1-0 and leaving their preseason win column blank.Yeagley and his team begin their 2011 regular season campaign Saturday when Indiana heads to South Bend, Ind., to take on No. 12 ranked Notre Dame.They will try to avenge the team’s 2-1 defeat to the Fighting Irish last season in Bloomington.
(04/29/11 2:26am)
____simple_html_dom__voku__html_wrapper____>After finishing just one stroke out of third place in their final regular season tournament, the IU men’s golf team will begin its postseason run Friday in the Big Ten Championship hosted by Purdue in West Lafayette.Two weeks of practice allowed the golfers to refocus from their fifth place finish in Illinois - where a few costly mistakes and late-round surges by Northwestern and Illinois State dropped them just one shot back from a tie for third.Freshman David Mills led the team, with a tie for 13th place with a two-round total of four-over 148 after consecutive rounds of 74.IU will try for a fifth tournament title this season with 36 holes on Friday and another 18 holes both Saturday and Sunday. The team, ranked No. 36 in the latest Golfweek/Sagarin ranking, is the fourth-highest ranked team in the conference going into the tournament, following Illinois (No. 13), Iowa (No. 17) and Ohio State (No. 28). Other top-60 Big Ten teams include Michigan (No. 51), Purdue (No. 54) and Northwestern (No. 58).In the Big Ten Championships last season, the Hoosiers posted a sixth-place finish led by former senior Alex Martin, but IU coach Mike Mayer sees no reason the team can’t improve on that finish, or even contend for a title.“This season, we have four players that I think have a realistic chance of winning this golf tournament,” Mayer said. “I don’t think I could say that last year and that’s really big, and that will go a lot towards giving us a real good shot at winning this weekend.”