Hoosier team stumbles

It was good. Almost too good.\nTwo weeks ago the men's soccer team played like the Hoosiers of the past few seasons ' gutting out two come from behind victories over top 10 opponents Maryland and Virginia. The Hoosiers played with the confidence and poise that was lacking in their opening losses against Portland and UCLA. \nThings had finally started to come together for the Hoosiers. Improvements still needed to be made, but it was obvious that the team was on the right track and beginning to gel as they headed into last week's games. The tough part of the schedule was supposedly in the rear view mirror.\n Somebody forgot to tell that to IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, Creighton and Florida International.\n Wednesday's game against IUPUI was supposed to be a game where a lot of players were to get a great deal of game experience. Unfortunately, because of a packed-in defense, some unkind posts and an out-of-body experience by the Jaguar goaltender, the starters were the ones getting the bulk of the playing time in the Hoosiers' 2-0 victory.\nIf Wednesday's game was a fender bender, then Friday's game against Creighton at the Butler Classic was a train wreck. \nIU was playing its fourth game in eight days, and it showed as Creighton outhustled, outmuscled and outplayed a weary Hoosier squad. In IU's worst defensive performance in over a decade, the Hoosiers lost to the Bluejays 4-1. \nCoach Jerry Yeagley was quick to credit Creighton, but also put some of the blame for the loss on himself, as he admitted scheduling the IUPUI game during this early-season stretch was a risk.\n"I have a whole lot of responsibility for Friday night's performance," Yeagley said. "The tank was totally empty on Friday. It was bad judgment on my part."\nThe team's fatigue led to quite possibly the best decision of the weekend for the Hoosiers ' they took Saturday off. \nWith the team told wipe Friday out of their collective memory, Sunday's game against Florida International showed that the Hoosiers were back on track as they took control of the game midway through the first half and never let up, at one point taking fourteen consecutive shots. \nUnfortunately it was eerily similar to the IUPUI game, as the Hoosiers got plenty of scoring chances, yet couldn't seem to put anything in the back of the net. That changed when newly named tri-captain sophomore Pat Noonan blasted a shot home 87 minutes into the game to give the Hoosiers a 1-0 victory that was not as close as the score indicated.\nWith such a sporadic start one might think the team would be questioning itself. But as Lee Corso would say ' "Not so fast my friends."\nWhile some might not believe it the Hoosiers are actually in a good position at 4-3. A couple of more wins would be nice, but the most important fact is that when healthy and rested the Hoosiers have, for the most part, outplayed every opponent. \nIt might not be the type of season Hoosier fans are accustomed to, but then again, this isn't your typical Hoosier team. Just ask junior midfielder Tyler Hawley.\n"We were basically just pumped to come out and play the way the 2000 team should play, not last year's team," said Hawley after Sunday's performance. "We were kind of falling back on last year's team, saying 'Last year's team did this; last year's team did that.' Now we just got to do it like we do it."\nSupposedly the roller coaster has stopped, and the Hoosiers seem ready to jump out against the rest of their schedule. However, it could only help later on to be reminded of the peaks and valleys they faced along the ride that was the opening three weeks of the season.