Sept. 6, 2009

Box Score

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Indiana men's soccer team put up a season-best 19 shots, nine of which were on goal, but they could not get that second ball in the net in a 2-1 loss to No. 3 Wake Forest Sunday on the final day of the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic on Jerry Yeagley Field at Armstrong Stadium. The loss drops the Hoosiers to 0-1-1 on the season.

Wake Forest took the early lead thanks to a defensive miscue by Indiana. Luke Norman sent in a ball that looked to be going just high, but IU's Alec Purdie did not want to take a chance in his patrol of the back post and tried to clear the ball. Unfortunately for IU, the clearance did not make it out and bounced off the bar and just underneath for a 1-0 Demon Deacons lead at 12:20.

    "I thought they came out and were better in the first half with their pressure," said head coach Mike Freitag. "I think we made adjustments in the second half and I felt the game was going our way. Unfortunately a mistake cost us. You can't do that against good team. You will get punished, and we did. It is a hard pill to swallow, but we have a long season ahead of us.

    After a couple of early close calls, senior midfielder Eric Alexander finally put one in and evened up the score with his first goal of the year at 61:36. Senior midfielder Lee Hagedorn brought the ball down the left side before dishing off to Alexander. Alexander had to make his way around a Wake Forest defender and angle his shot around WFU goalkeeper Akira Fitzgerald for the score. The entire play got started with a pass from Will Bruin in the middle of the field.

    "In the second half I think we regrouped and really put the pressure on them," Hagedorn said. "I think we got a goal we deserved and maybe should have gotten another one."

    Alexander finished the day with four shots, all of which were on goal looks. Overall the Hoosiers had a 19-16 shot advantage and put nine of those shots on frame, compared to six from Wake Forest.

    Wake Forest came up with the game-winning goal in the 72nd minute by taking advantage of another Indiana defensive miscue. Playing the ball deep in the left corner, junior defender Daniel Kelly turned it over to Austin da Luz. da Luz served the ball in front of the net to Sean Randolph whose diving header made it past goalkeeper Luis Soffner for the score.

     "I thought we had the better of it in the second half and we just made a defensive mistake," Hagedorn said. "That happens sometimes and we got countered on and they put it away. It is frustrating with it ending that way."

    "I thought we were slow today," Freitag said. "We didn't get after it like we should have. I don't think we played the way we can, so that is the disappointment. That is not to take away from the effort of my team

    The Hoosiers' first dangerous attempt came just six minutes in when junior defender Rich Balchan took a running shot at the net which forced Fitzgerald to deflect the ball over the goal line, setting up a corner kick. On junior Andy Adlard's ensuing corner, sophomore defender Tommy Meyer took a shot which landed wide right.

    With just under 15 minutes left to play in the first half, Alexander headed a serve from freshman Joe Tolen that forced a save from Fitzgerald, and sophomore forward Will Bruin had a header that had to be deflected by Fitzgerald. Bruin led the Hoosiers with five shots on the day.

    With the score still tied at 1-1, the Hoosiers had a golden opportunity to take the lead at 63:30 when Bruin passed to a wide-open Darren Yeagle, who sent his shot dead-on in front of the net off the crossbar.

    After Wake Forest had taken a 2-1 lead, the Hoosiers had another opportunity to put one home when the Demon Deacons were called for a foul at the top of the penalty box. Adlard took the shot, bouncing it off the Wake Forest wall, and got the rebound where his second shot was also blocked.

    In the first match of the day, No. 5 St. John's took the tournament title on goal differential with a 2-0 win over No. 10 Notre Dame. Wake Forest finished second in the tournament, with the Hoosiers third and the Fighting Irish fourth. Balchan and Alexander were named to the all-tournament team for IU.

    Indiana now hits the road for five-straight matches, beginning with the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament at Notre Dame next weekend. The Hoosiers will face New Mexico on Friday at 5 p.m., followed by Seattle on Sunday at 11:30 a.m.

2009 adidas/IU Credit Union Classic All-Tournament Team
Derby Carrillo- St. John's
Ben Clack- St. John's
Connor Lade- St. John's
David Reed- St. John's
Akira Fitzgerald- Wake Forest
Ike Opara- Wake Forest
Austin da Luz- Wake Forest
Rich Balchan- Indiana
Eric Alexander- Indiana
Michael Thomas- Notre Dame
Jeb Brovsky- Notre Dame

Offensive MVP: Sverre Wegge Gundhus- St. John's
Defensive MVP: Joel Gustafsson- St. John's