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After a tough loss in double overtime to California, Indiana showed why they are the #20 team in the nation with a huge 5-1 win over the #5 UCLA Bruins.
The game was part of the Adidas/IU Credit Union classic and was played on Jerry Yeagley field at Armstrong Stadium.
Although he has 554 more wins to surpass his father’s record, today was Coach Todd Yeagley’s first win as an IU head coach and he couldn’t have been happier.
“Friday was a tough one, and so today to bounce back in front of this great crowd on national television and get this result, I am just really happy for our guys,” said Yeagley about the game.
Nine minutes into the game, junior Will Bruin scored his first goal of the day, assisted by Alec Purdie, to put IU up 1-0. UCLA gained possession and had one of their 12 corner kick opportunities 12 minutes into the game, but couldn’t convert on it.
Coming out of the first TV timeout, UCLA’s Ryan Hollingshead shot the ball right out of the reach of Indiana keeper Luis Soffner’s hands to even the score up at 1-1
Not more than 30 seconds later, Andy Adlard answered Hollingshead’s goal and converted a penalty kick that was awarded to IU after Cesar Morales of UCLA was given a yellow card during the 25th minute of play to give IU a 2-1 edge going into the half.
At the half, Coach Yeagley told his players that “…right now we have the team 2-1, but we can’t get confident, we have to keep attacking and the once we get that next goal, we have to open the floodgates and keep them coming.”
And opening the floodgates is precisely what Indiana did.
IU played 19 of their 30 player team, which gave freshman like Blake Wise and Jacob Bushue and some RS sophomores the chance to get more playing time and show the talent of the Indiana bench.
Starting the second half, IU keeper Luis Soffner had one of his three saves that kept Indiana ahead the entire game. During the 13th minute of play, RS junior Alec Purdie followed up on a shot by freshman Nikita Kotlov that was saved by UCLA keeper Brian Rowe to put Indiana up 3-1.
About 70 seconds later, Bruin came up with his second goal of the day after he took a pass from Purdie and shot the ball right down the middle of the field to give Indiana a 4-1 advantage over the Bruins.
UCLA had 11 shots on goal, while Indiana had 13. The only difference was how each team dealt with turnovers and capitalizing on corner kicks and fouls. UCLA had more corner kicks but also more fouls than Indiana did, not to mention the five yellow cards the Bruins racked up during the game.
Bruin’s last goal was during the 67th minute and was assisted by Adlard to give Indiana a 5-1 lead, and the satisfaction of defeating the #5 team in the nation
“Everybody’s buying in and believing now. I mean we know we had it, but we didn’t get the result Friday and we got the result now, so everybody knows what we can do on the field,” said sensation Will Bruin.
