Undefeated Bulldogs too much for Hoosiers
The Indiana Men’s Soccer team’s 6-1 record against ranked opponents this season was not enough to will them to victory tonight, as the Hoosiers fell to the #8 Butler Bulldogs 4-1. Coming into the game the #25 Hoosiers were 19-2-1 all time against the Bulldogs, splitting their games last season 1-1. Butler bested the Hoosiers in the regular season 2-1 in overtime. But the Hoosiers got the one that counted when they beat the Bulldogs 1-0 in the second round of the NCAA tournament. That was the last time Butler has been defeated. Butler (14-0-1) now leads the NCAA with 14 wins.
An early mistake by goalkeeper Luis Soffner allowed Butler to get into the scoring column first. In the 15th minute Soffner saved a shot from Kyle Pateros, and on the clearing throw, bobbled the ball to the foot of Austin Oldham, who put the ball in the back of the net for an easy 1-0 lead.
“I was trying to throw to Andy down the sideline and right before I threw it, I saw their guy sprinting from the back and I just second guessed myself, and it slipped out,” Soffner said. “Just a mistake, never happened before and hopefully never happens again.”
But the Hoosiers looked to recover quickly from the miscue with a couple of quick chances. 17 minutes left in the half, Andy Adlard served the ball into the box, Caleb Konstanski getting a head on the ball, putting the shot just wide of the goal.
The Hoosiers looked as though they would get into halftime only down a goal to the Bulldogs, but a Butler would strike again in the 43rd minute on a shot from Jacob Capito from 30 yards out found the upper left corner of the net for his third goal of the season.
Then just 41 seconds later Tyler Pollock blasted a shot just inside the 18-yard box for his second goal of the season giving Butler a 3-0 lead.
“They are a nice team, capitalized well, well organized, and tonight was their night is the best way to put it,” head coach Todd Yeagley said.
The Hoosiers tried to fight back in the second half, even making a change in goal replacing Soffner with junior Nate Mitchell.
“Luis was down a little bit,” Yeagley said. “But I haven’t lost confidence in Luis.”
Trying to use the wind at their back to their advantage Indiana applied some strong pressure early on, before Will Bruin broke through with his team leading 13th goal of the season, tying him for second in the nation in scoring.
Indiana had a few more chances in the half, but was unable to crack the tough Butler defense.
“They are a good team, very hard to break down,” Yeagley said. “Even when we did do one part right attacking, we didn’t do the second part right.”
Butler was able to put the final note on the game when Pollock scored his second goal of the match in the 77th minute; a shot just outside the 18-yard box and put into the upper corner, giving goalkeeper Mitchell no chance at a save.
“I’ve never seen a team shoot that well personally,” Bruin said. “They hit some bombs from outside and I look forward to playing them again if we get the chance.”
“Overall tonight in lot of areas that we need to be objective in we weren’t as good as we needed to be to beat a good team,” Yeagley said.
The Hoosiers fall to 8-5-2 on the season with a match up against conference foe Northwestern on Sunday at 5 p.m. at Bill Armstrong stadium. A victory in that game will clinch a regular season Big Ten Title for the Hoosiers.
