Oct. 25, 2009

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EVANSTON, Ill. - No. 25 Indiana fell behind in the 63rd minute and could not mount a comeback in a 2-0 loss at No. 12 Northwestern (9-2-4, 2-1-1) Sunday afternoon at Lakeside Field in Evanston, Ill.

The Hoosiers fall to 7-7-1 overall, 2-2 in Big Ten play. Indiana has now gone 277:22 minutes without scoring a goal.

"This is a very difficult loss," said head coach Mike Freitag. It is indicative of the season at this point and time. For whatever reason we have not come together as a team and we have very little time left to do that."

Northwestern took a 1-0 lead at 62:12 when Matt Eliason corralled a free ball in the box and sent it to the lower left corner. It was the first goal scored by Northwestern against Indiana since the 2005 season when the teams played to a 1-1 tie.

The Wildcats put the match out of reach with their second goal in the 79th minute as Oliver Kupe scored his second goal of the season.

The Hoosiers did not record a shot in the second half until 12:30 remaining when Eric Alexander sent a shot high. With 10 minutes to play freshman Kevin Bick sent a ball off the NU cross bar.

With sophomore Will Bruin ineligible for this contest after receiving a red card in the last match, redshirt freshman Tim Wylie earned his first career start, pairing up top with senior Darren Yeagle.

Alexander took a shot in the 11th minute that Northwestern goalkeeper Misha Rosenthal came out to block, The ball rolled over to the back post but no Hoosier was in position to put home the rebound.

Neil Wilmarth, who came on for the Hoosiers mid-way in the first half, out-jumped his opponent and got his head on the end of an Andy Adlard corner kick in the 33rd minute but an IU defender was there for the team save.

Indiana was lucky to survive a pair of dangerous chances by the Wildcats in the first half. Goalkeeper Luis Soffner tried to one-hand a serve that bounced over his head, but he was able to cover the ball before an NU player could get a foot on it. With less than 10 minutes to play, a deflected header off a corner kick bounced off the cross bar and out of play to keep Northwestern scoreless.

The Hoosiers had an 8-2 advantage in shots at the half, limiting NU to just one on-goal look. Yeagle and Kevin Bick led IU with two attempts each.

Indiana will close the regular season with a three-match home stand, beginning with Evansville Wednesday night at 7 p.m. ET on Jerry Yeagley Field at Armstrong Stadium.