Hoosiers bite the Bulldogs

INDIANAPOLIS -- After a sluggish start in the first half by both teams because of wet field conditions at Kuntz Stadium, the IU men's soccer team defeated Butler 2-0, scoring both goals in the second half. The Hoosiers move to 10-3-1 overall and Butler falls to 10-4-1 overall.\nButler scored an own goal in the 69th minute off Jason Kieffer, but the official scorer credited IU sophomore midfielder John Michael Hayden with the goal. The goal is Hayden's third on the season.\n"Basically I was just trying to hit (IU junior midfielder Pat Yates) in the box," Hayden said. "I saw him making a run. Fortunately, it hit somebody's head. You know, diving header. It was nice. I was just trying to put it on Yates' foot, but we got lucky."\nOne minute, sixteen seconds later, junior forward Brian Plotkin and sophomore forward Jacob Peterson had a two-on-one breakaway with Butler's goalkeeper, senior Evan Reinhardt, an IU transfer. After Reinhardt came out to play the ball and tried to slow the play, the ball moved quickly to Yates who scored unassisted from 15 yards out with an open goal. Yates' goal was his first on the season and ninth of his three-year career.\n"Goals don't come easy and they're not going to come easy," IU coach Mike Freitag said. "We're going to have to take our chances well and hopefully get some breaks. People can say, 'Hey, that's an own goal,' but it's also good ball played in behind the defense and the guy had to play it."\nButler had its chances to score early in the game as the Bulldogs posted five shots to IU's three in the first half. But it was IU who came out in the second half outshooting Butler nine to three, giving IU a total of 12 shots, compared to Butler's eight.\nIU had a big chance to score coming in the 54th minute when junior forward Mike Ambersley had a shot from the middle of the offensive half ring off the crossbar. \nPlotkin gave the Hoosiers their last big chance at a goal in the 85th minute when he had a sideways spin kick go wide left from 10 yards out. Plotkin finished the match with five shots, one of which was on goal.\n"In practice we've been talking about just making your own luck," Plotkin said. "The way you are going to make your own luck is just to spot and putting the ball on target, taking shots. Anything can happen. Just hitting the ball from outside, inside, anything.\n"We've been working on taking chances, getting the ball in the box because anything can happen. It's been a big topic with our team in the past week or so and I think we showed it today. It kind of paid off for us, now we know what it means and we'll continue to do it."\nIU was 60 percent with its shots on goals as Butler had three saves in the match. On the opposite end of the field, IU senior goalkeeper Jay Nolly played well again as he faced only one shot on goal -- his only save in the match -- giving Nolly his fifth shutout on the season.\nThree of Nolly's five shutouts have come against the other in-state opponents IU has faced this season. IU defeated Evansville 4-0 Sept. 12, Notre Dame 2-0 Sept. 15 and last night versus Butler.\nFreitag called the game "a good bounce back game" after the team dropped a close 1-0 match versus Northwestern Sunday.\n"I think it shows the character of this team," Freitag said. "We had the little blurp on Sunday and now the boys came back and knew it was going to be a hard fought game -- never an easy one -- but I think the boys dug down deep and just keep working and made it happen."\nIU travels to Columbus, Ohio, Sunday, to face Ohio State in what Freitag calls the biggest game of the season. Ohio State enters the game 7-4-2 overall, including a 3-0 clip in Big Ten play, after defeating Oakland 2-1 last night.\n"I think the win (versus Ohio State) will give us the Big Ten regular season championship and get the bye in (the first round of the Big Ten soccer tournament)," Freitag said. "Ohio State is on a roll, they won again tonight versus Oakland, which is not an easy team to play."\n-- Contact staff writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.