Eric Alexander's second-half penalty shot was the lone goal for the Hoosiers in a 2-1 loss to Creighton. |
No. 2 Indiana Suffers 2-1 Setback at Hands of No. 16 Creighton
Sept. 13, 2007
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - No. 2 Indiana (3-1-1) suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of No. 16 Creighton (2-0-2), 2-1 in the Saint Louis/Nike Soccer Classic at Robert R. Hermann Stadium on the Saint Louis University campus.
"We gave the game away," said head coach Mike Freitag. "And what I mean by that is Creighton took the game from us. I take nothing away from them (Creighton); they were outstanding. But we didn't do things the way we were supposed to."
It was a match controlled offensively by the Bluejays from the first whistle but the two teams went into the locker room deadlocked at 0-0.
Opening the second half at the same blistering pace, Creighton took a 1-0 lead on Tim Bohenkamp's first goal of the season at 58:41. All alone on the left side of the penalty box, Bohenkamp sent a ball in from about 12 yards out that curled into the upper left of the net and past Chay Cain's diving save attempt. It was two minutes later that Seth Sinovic nearly made it a two-goal Creighton lead when his header off a restart bounced off the crossbar.
The Bluejays did make it 2-0 with a rebound goal by Tim Walters at 62:28. Tony Schmitz took the initial shot with Cain getting a hand on it and sending the ball back into play. Walters collected the rebound and swiftly put the ball into the back of the net as Creighton continued to dominate the offensive attack with its 13th shot of the evening.
In a race to answer the Bluejays offense, Andy Adlard tried to connect with Kevin Noschang but Adlard's service was just a high and didn't allow Noschang to get a good touch on the ball. Noschang and Lee Hagedorn also found their timing just off as Noschang's service into the six-yard area just missed a wide-open Hagedorn.
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Picking up the attack, Hagedorn sent a header just high with a little over 17 minutes left in regulation, but Indiana was put at a man disadvantage for the remainder of the match when Ofori Sarkodie was shown a red card at 73:06 on a tackle on Jeremy Wittig. Sarkodie will have to sit out the Hoosiers' next match on Saturday against Saint Louis.
Indiana was awarded a penalty kick after a takedown in the box and Eric Alexander put one back for IU for his second goal of the season at 74:01.
"All we can do is learn from this," Freitag said. "The season is a long haul and there are some days you are not going to be at your best. But with the parity in college soccer today you have to always be ready.
"As disappointed as I am in the loss, I am committed to learning from it and making us better."
In what would be a sign of things to come, the Bluejays put together a dangerous chance just five minutes in with Tony Schmitz getting behind the IU defense, but his curling shot was expertly handled by Cain in goal. IU got away with another mistake has Daniel Kelly's attempt to play the ball back to Cain went out over the end line, resulting in a corner kick for Creighton. Andrei Gotsmanov put in a perfect ball but Cain again came up with the handle.
It was a busy first half for the junior goalkeeper as Cain faced six shots and was credited with a pair of saves. Indiana trailed 6-4 in the shot tally at halftime but had a slight 4-3 advantage in corner kicks.
The Hoosiers thought they had a goal with just over two minutes remaining in the first half as Neil Wilmarth headed in a ball from Billy Weaver, but Indiana was ruled to have been in an offside position, nullifying the shot.
The Hoosiers close out tournament play on Saturday night as they face the host Billikens at 7 p.m. CT. You can follow the match live via GameTracker on iuhoosers.com.
