Nguyen rises in Hoosiers' dramatic weekend

The IU roster might have changed during the course of a year, but the defending national champs proved they still have the same flare for dramatics in this weekend's Oregon State Diadora Classic in Corvallis, Ore.\nIU shutout No. 16 California State-Northridge 5-0, then dominated the stat sheet for 55 minutes against tournament host Oregon State University, only to trail 2-0. But with 35 minutes remaining, the weekend was far from over.\nJunior forward Jacob Peterson cut the Beavers' lead in half in the 56th minute of play when freshman forward Lee Nguyen redirected a pass from senior midfielder Mike Ambersley to Peterson, who tallied his fifth goal of the season.\n"Lee has been finding me lately and giving me opportunities," Peterson said. "I'm glad I was able to get one for him finally."\nTwenty minutes after the Peterson goal, IU committed a foul in the 18-yard box, which gave Oregon State a penalty kick that would virtually ice the game. Living up to his role in the IU theater, sophomore goalkeeper Chris Munroe made the save to keep IU within one goal.\n"I just tried to guess the right way," Munroe said. "I was lucky he shot it where I dove. I'm just happy we were able to salvage a tie."\nIt didn't take the Hoosiers long to capitalize on the Munroe save when Nguyen continued to escalate his role in a breakout weekend, scoring the equalizer with seven minutes left on the clock. The reigning High School Player of the Year beat two defenders on a streaking run toward the goal, and finished with a floating shot over the head of the Oregon Sate goalkeeper. The 18-year-old's goal went unassisted.\n"I saw that ball and got to it," Nguyen said. "Once I got by the two defenders, all I had to do was lift it over the goalie's head and it was a goal."\nThe Hoosiers had several opportunities to score in the overtime period, but were unable to convert, so the game ended in a 2-2 tie. IU took home its second tournament title of the year as it beat Oregon State in total goals scored during the tournament 7-5. The No. 1 Hoosiers improved their record to 4-0-2 as they head into Big Ten play this coming weekend against Michigan State. Although the game ended in a tie, IU head coach Mike Freitag was happy with the way the team responded when faced with adversity on the road.\n"This was an interesting game once we made a mistake to give them their first goal," Freitag said. "We showed a lot of championship qualities with how we played after falling behind 2-0."\nThe Hoosiers opened the tournament with an offensive explosion, breezing by No. 16 California State University, Northridge 5-0. After a 0-0 first half, junior midfielder Josh Tudela headed home a Nguyen corner kick to open the scoring for IU. Minutes after recording his first collegiate point, Nguyen scored his first goal as a Hoosier on a give-and-go with senior midfielder Brian Plotkin.\n"I finally shot it and it went in," Nguyen said. "It is nice to finally have that out of the way and to move on."\nFellow freshman Brad Ring notched his first collegiate goal three minutes later when he blasted a poor clearance into the back of the net 35 yards from goal. Two IU penalty kicks from Plotkin and junior midfielder John Michael Hayden rounded out the scoring for the Hoosiers who reached the five-goal mark for the second consecutive match.\n"We got a wake-up call this weekend," Freitag said. "Sometimes you can cruise, but we rose to the occasion. I'm very proud of the way we played this weekend"