Final 4 Destination

Behind two second-half goals by junior forward Pat Noonan, the men's soccer team beat the No.5 Clemson Tigers 2-0 Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The win put the No.4 Hoosiers (17-3-1) in the College Cup, the Final Four of college soccer, for the fifth straight year. \nVirginia is the only other school to have ever strung together five consecutive College Cups, achieving the feat through the 1991-1995 seasons. \nIU will face the No.8 St. John's Red Storm (16-2-3) on Friday at the Columbus Crew Stadium in Columbus, Ohio.\nClemson came into the Elite Eight game off of an emotional 3-2 double overtime victory against the University of Alabama-Birmingham in the third round. The emotion carried over into Sunday's match as three yellow cards, two to Clemson and one to IU, were handed out in the first 11:37 minutes of the first half.\nThe third yellow card was given to the Tigers' sophomore back Oguchi Onyewu when he slid into IU's senior keeper Colin Rogers. A tussle ensued between Onyewu and IU's backs while Rogers remained on the ground in obvious pain. After the fight was broken up, the yellow card was distributed.\nBut such efforts by the referees to neutralize the physical match were unsuccessful. Clemson and IU headed into the locker room at half time with three yellow cards a piece and a combined 26 fouls.\nNoonan said the aggressive tone of the game was expected.\n"Today's game was a battle, there was lots of physical play by both teams," he said. "You can look at the fouls and yellow cards and see that it was rough. This was just like all games. Everyone we play is physical, but today we just had two top teams going at it."\nAlthough the Hoosiers went into halftime deadlocked with the Tigers 0-0 they could have been down 1-0.\nOn a fast break, Onyewu sent a header past Rogers into the back of the net for an apparent goal. It was nullified, however, when a referee called a foul on Onyewu for pushing off of senior back Ryan Hammer in the box.\nOnyewu said he was confused by the call.\n"I don't know exactly what happened," he said. "I was in position where I didn't need to make a foul. It was an unlucky call."\nClemson decided to move Onyewu up from his usual defensive position, something coach Jerry Yeagley said almost worked.\n"They caught us off guard first half by moving Oguchi Onyewu up top," he said. "It was different from how they normally play. We didn't really adjust to the switch."\nThe second half was all IU.\nJust 15 minutes into the closing period, Noonan, on a pass from freshman Mike Ambersley, sent a rocket from the far right of the penalty box through the upper left corner of the goal, giving IU a lead they would not surrender. 20 minutes later, Noonan scored again from the right side of the box, this time on a chip shot over Clemson keeper, and former IU roommate, Doug Warren.\nThe Hoosiers would spend the rest of the half being stifled by an impressive showing from Warren. \n"(Warren) proved why he's the ACC Goalkeeper of the Year, stopping pointblank shots," Yeagley said. "If it wasn't for Dougie there would have been a couple more goals."\nNoonan spoke well of his former teammate.\n"Doug and I were close when he was here," he said. "It was good to see him again, but when you get out on the field you forget about all that and just play. You want each other to do well, but at the end of the day somebody has to win."\nAfter Noonan's two goals, the defense did what they have done all season, and completely shut down the Tiger attack, posting their 16th shutout of the season. With two more shutouts in the last two games, the Hoosiers could tie the school record of 18 in one season. Yeagley says his strong defensive unit is attributed to their work ethic.\n"We may not have a lot of marquee players but I wouldn't trade any of them," Yeagley said. "We have lots of players no one knew about like Colin (Rogers), Hammer and (junior John) Swann, but their hard work has turned them into tremendous players"