Hoosiers highlight Major League Soccer SuperDraft

The trio of captains from the back-to-back national championship men's soccer team have moved on to the next part of their careers in Major League Soccer. At the 2005 MLS SuperDraft in Baltimore Friday, the San Jose Earthquakes selected Danny O'Rourke fourth overall, Drew Moor went sixth to FC Dallas and Real Salt Lake drafted Jay Nolly 22nd. \nThe San Jose Earthquakes showed that O'Rourke, a senior midfielder, is a priority to its squad by trading up to select him.\nO'Rourke, the 2004 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Winner, said San Jose's trading for him came as a surprise.\n"It's nice to go to a place where you're wanted," O'Rourke said. "San Jose is not just an awesome city, but to go to a place where they want you is nice. Everything is starting all over. The Hermann ended an amazing career at IU, and this is a new piece of the puzzle for the start of something new."\nJunior defender Drew Moor, a native of Dallas, had opted to forgo his senior year at IU and went No. 6 in the draft to FC Dallas. Moor transferred to IU after spending his freshman season at Furman University, and he helped lead the Hoosiers to the fifth-best defense in the country in 2004, when IU only gave up 0.64 goals per game.\nThe expansion club Real Salt Lake took senior goalkeeper Jay Nolly in the second round with the 22nd overall pick. Nolly was a mainstay in goal for the Hoosiers as he played every minute in goal for IU since Oct. 13, 2002, when the Hoosiers defeated Northwestern 1-0. Since that game, Nolly compiled a 42-10-6 record for IU. He capped the streak by making the final save of the final play of his career when he blocked the last penalty kick by Nate Boyden of the University of California-Santa Barbara, giving IU its repeat title in the 2004 national championship match.\nAn avid bass fisherman, Nolly said he already has started to look into the fishing opportunities in and around Utah.\n"This was the one place I was looking at because of the opening they had at goalkeeper," Nolly said. "When they called me and told me they wanted me, that is where I wanted to go. It's just like when you came to college -- you are with a new team, and I might have to pay my dues and work my way up, but it's part of being a pro player. This gives me more motivation to work harder because of the opportunity they gave me."\nThe trio of Hoosiers anchored a defense that ranked seventh in goals against average with 0.63 goals allowed per game and No. 15 in shutout percentage by not allowing a goal in 11 of the team's 24 matches. This is the highest that any three IU teammates have been drafted. O'Rourke and Moor are the sixth and seventh Hoosiers selected in the first round in the history of the MLS SuperDraft.\n"I think it just shows the quality of our program at Indiana, the talent level of the players and great individuals that we bring in to be a part of our program," IU coach Mike Freitag said in a statement. "I am very proud of these guys, and we will miss them."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Steve Slivka at smslivka@indiana.edu.