Big Ten season champs

Trailing 2-0 with 25 minutes left in the game most thought IU's 44-game Big Ten unbeaten streak, eight-game win streak and conference championship aspirations would all come crashing down. \nMost thought that -- except the Hoosiers who, Saturday night, in IU coach Jerry Yeagley's final regular season home game, came roaring back with three straight goals, beating Penn State 3-2 and capturing the Big Ten regular season championship for the eighth-straight season. \nIU (11-3-4, 5-0-1 Big Ten) earned the No. 1 seed in the Big Ten tournament and will play the winner of Ohio State/Wisconsin 5 p.m., Friday.\n"There was not a player at halftime on our team that was thinking we couldn't be the Big Ten champs," Yeagley said. "They didn't sit there and mope with their heads down. When we came in at half and the main thing was to get their minds off the first half, we talked about the character we developed over the last eight games, the confidence we developed, and we go out and not try to do it all at once. It was a different team out there in the second half."\nTwo misplays in IU's zone spotted Penn State a 2-0 lead in the first half. Already up 1-0, the Nittany Lions added a second with just under two and half remaining when sophomore Brian Plotkin tripped over the ball carrying it out of the box, allowing Kenji Treschuk to find Simon Omekanda who played a nice ball to Chad Severs for the goal. \nThe two goals in the first half were as many as IU had let up in then past eight matches. \n"That was probably the worst one (halftime) I have ever been involved in," junior Ned Grabavoy said. "Guys were down, but there were a few leaders on the team who got the guys' heads up, and (it) was probably one of the biggest victories I have ever been involved in. We're not a team that's been scoring three goals in a half, and we had three goals and even more chances. These guys have a lot of heart."\nIU's scoring entourage began when Grabavoy played a perfect ball to sophomore Pat Yates who beat the sprawling goalie under his arm to cut the margin in half with 28 minutes left in the game. The Hoosiers would even the score off a corner kick from Plotkin that was headed in by sophomore Drew Moor for the Hoosiers' first header this season. \nIn miraculous fashion, the Hoosiers had tied the game and stolen any bit of confidence the Nittany Lions had left in them. But IU needed one more goal, for a tie would have still handed the Big Ten title to Michigan.\nAnd Plotkin, who was pulled after his poor performance in the first half, completed the comeback with 6:23 left when Grabavoy, with an assist already, played a ball in the box that was headed in by Plotkin giving IU the lead and the 2,524 in attendance a reason to erupt. \n"I should have just gotten the ball out but I fell over; instead, I led to their mistake that led to the goal," Plotkin said. "When I came in at halftime, they (my teammates) said 'come out with your head up.' So my teammates kind of lifted me up and gave me the strength to get my head back up."\nYeagley's Hoosiers did something he could not remember the last time he saw -- come back from a two-goal deficit. In thrilling fashion, Yeagley concludes his last regular season ever in an effort he will never forget. \n"That was a thriller," Yeagley said. "I can't remember the emotion swinging so much in terms of our effort both physically and mentally. I felt that they had dominated us. But champs work through the bad run of play, and hot dogs let it drive them down and make them play worse. We should. We were champs, and that's what winners do."\n-- Contact staff writer Daniel Cohen at djcohen@indiana.edu.