Brad Ring scored the lone goal for the Hoosiers at Saint Louis Saturday night. |
No. 2 Indiana Drops 2-1 Decision to No. 24 Saint Louis
Sept. 15, 2007
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - No. 2 Indiana (3-2-1) dropped its second-straight contest, giving up a pair of unanswered goals to No. 24 Saint Louis (2-1-2) in a 2-1 loss in the final game of the Saint Louis/Nike Soccer Classic at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.
The Hoosiers had their chances, putting up 15 shots with six of those looks on-goal, but in the end could not finish.
"I am pleased with the overall effort of the team, but costly mistakes hurt us," said head coach Mike Freitag. "You can't do that against a quality opponent like Saint Louis."
It was a perfect fall evening in St. Louis with clear skies and crisp temperatures. The game started out in IU's favor as Michael Roach had a beat on a nifty through-ball from Brad Ring seven minutes in, but SLU `keeper Ross Kaufman smothered the ball. Roach took his second shot of the night as Andy Adlard fed him a perfect pass from just atop the midfield circle but Kaufman again had it covered.
Indiana looked like the more dangerous team early on, but Saint Louis had two goal-scoring opportunites in a matter of seconds in the 17th minute. Dado Hamzagic hit one off the right post, and Kyle Patterson sent an open rebound shot wide. A minute later goalkeeper Chay Cain was again put to the test, diving to his right to stop a shot from Hamzagic.
Despite the near misses from the Billikens, it was the Hoosiers who were on the scoreboard first. Brad Ring hit a laser shot from about 20 yards out, taking the ball from a Saint Louis defender Brian Grazier near midfield and sending his shot past Kaufman for a 1-0 IU lead at 25:55.
|
|
 |
Saint Louis continued to apply pressure to the Hoosiers' back line after the goal, including a 1-on-1 shot from Kyle Hayes that Cain got a hand on and sent back into the field of play.
The Billikens put back the equalizer at 41:50 after it looked like Cain had made the save. Dado Hamzagic sent a ball into the goal mouth that Cain seemed to cover, but the ball squirted out to the waiting Grazier who put it home uncontested.
Cain finished the game with five saves.
A misplayed ball by the Hoosiers led to Saint Louis' second goal for a 2-1 lead at 59:01. Indiana completely missed the ball while trying to clear it out in front of the net. That allowed Patterson to pounce on it and send the ball into the lower right for the Billikens.
Going down a goal seemed to put life back into the Hoosiers' attack. It looked like Noschang had the game tied once again with a shot from 15 yards out that went across the goal and was heading to the back of the net until it just nicked the right post and went back into the field of play.
Indiana continued to put itself in good positions, but a shot from Lee Hagedorn was saved by Kaufman and Adlard sent an open shot wide. At just under five minutes remaining, Kaufman was forced to make a brilliant save on a shot from Charley Traylor, leaping to his right and sending the ball over the crossbar.
The Hoosiers were without the services of starting defender Ofori Sarkodie, who was serving a one-match suspension after receiving a red card in Thursday night's loss to Creighton. Roach, a St. Louis native, and junior Nick Sutter both earned their first career starts in the match. Also making his first-ever appearance for IU was freshman Rich Balchan.
Indiana returns to the friendly confines of Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium this Friday as it plays host to UAB at 7 p.m.
