Sept. 4, 2009

Box Score| PHOTO GALLERY

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - In front of a raucous crowd of 3,920 Friday night, the seventh-ranked Indiana University men's soccer team and No. 5 St. John's play to a 0-0 double overtime tie on day one of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic on Jerry Yeagley Field at Armstrong Stadium.

"I think defensively we played well," said head coach Mike Freitag. "We were playing a team that is ranked No. 1 in the country in some polls and I think we did a solid job all evening. Where we need to improve is with taking care of the ball in the offensive half of the field. I thought we gave it away too much and had to defend too much."

The Hoosiers came out on the attack from the start, led by senior captain Eric Alexander. The midfielder led all Hoosiers with four shot attempts, including a header in the 15th minute which forced SJU goalkeeper Derby Carrillo to make a leaping grab. With 11:58 left on the clock in the first half, Alexander unleashed a rocketing shot from 30 yards out that just sailed high. Four minutes later he had another shot deflected just wide, giving him three of Indiana's seven first-half attempts.

Indiana's best chance to score in the first stanza came at 38:19 when sophomore defender Tommy Meyer got in the middle of a scrum in the front of the net and got his boot on a ball that was cleared off the line by a Red Storm defender. That play began with a corner kick from junior midfielder Andy Adlard, one of eight corners on the night for the Hoosiers.

In addition to a 7-3 advantage in shots at the halftime break, Indiana also had four corner kicks to the Red Storm's two.

Junior forward Neil Wilmarth put forth his best effort with 19:49 to go in the second half, bringing down a ball in front of the net, but sent his shot high. With time winding down and less than six minutes left in regulation, sophomore forward Will Bruin turned and took a shot that forced Carrillo to make a leaping dive to his left for the stop. Adlard also had a chance to put the Hoosiers on the board in regulation with a well-timed shot from 25 yards out that just nicked wide right of the net.

Making his first career start in goal, freshman Luis Soffner was relatively untested, facing eight shots and making just two saves on the night. However, it was the freshman who came up big in the 95th minute after St. John's Adam Himeno had broken free, making a diving stop to his right that kept what could have been the game winner out of the net.

Indiana finished the match with a 14-8 advantage in shot attempts and were up 8-5 in corner kicks. Meyer had two shots for IU, along with a pair from Bruin. Sophomore forward Alec Purdie, junior defender Daniel Kelly, senior midfielder Darren Yeagle and freshman midfielder Kevin Bick also had one shot each.

Playing without four-year starting defender Ofori Sarkodie, the Hoosiers used junior Rich Balchan in his place, with freshman Caleb Konstanski, a Bloomington South grad, earning a start at the left midfield spot. Junior Cameron Jordan also made his regular-season Hoosier debut in the midfield, while Bick and redshirt freshman Joe Tolen made their first career appearances off the bench.

"It was a lot of fun," Konstanski said. "Growing up here I have watched IU soccer all my life and to be a part of it, hearing the crowd cheer for you, it was a surreal feeling walking out of the tunnel being part of the team.

"I definitely had some butterflies at the beginning, but once you get going it is just another soccer game and you give the same effort the way you have in practice. You just have to be confident, and after the first 10 minutes of the game I really settled down."

The Indiana players were given a boost on the field with the addition of "The Cage" student section tonight. The fans were loud and rowdy, and the team and coaches noticed.

"It was nice to have `The Cage' here to get the fans up close and personal," Freitag said. "It is something we have always wanted to do."

The road gets no easier for the Hoosiers as they are back in action on Sunday at 2 p.m. as they take on No. 3 Wake Forest in the final match of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic. The Demon Deacons and Notre Dame played to a 1-1 double overtime tie in the first match of the Classic on Friday. The IU-WFU match will be preceded by Notre Dame against St. John's at 11:30 a.m. The Indiana-Wake Forest match will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network.