Freitag refuses to take in-state rival IUPUI lightly

For 24 years, coach Steve Franklin has been a part of IU soccer. From his time in the program, IU coach Mike Freitag said Franklin knows the Hoosiers "as well as any coach in the country."\nUnfortunately for the IU men's soccer team, Franklin will be using his knowledge of IU on the opposing bench, hoping to lead his IU-Purdue University Indianapolis Jaguars to an upset of the No. 14 Hoosiers.\nAnd Freitag knows IUPUI will be prepared to play the Hoosiers at Bill Armstrong Stadium Tuesday at 7 p.m.\n"Coach Franklin knows our team as well as any coach in the country, maybe even better than I do," Freitag said. "He's seen us all summer at camp, and he's competitive."\nFranklin has been involved with the IU soccer camp -- which many future Hoosiers participate in -- for the past 24 years. Before taking over at IUPUI, Franklin spent two seasons as an assistant coach for former IU coach Jerry Yeagley. He was a member of the coaching staff when the Hoosiers lost to the University of Virginia 1-0 in the 1994 national championship game.\nEven though the Hoosiers have defeated the Jaguars in each of the six all-time meetings and IUPUI enters the match with a record of 6-9-0, IU sophomore midfielder John Mellencamp said the team must play with the same intensity in every game.\n"I know they are going to come out fired up," he said. "Coach Franklin always has his guys going. We are just going to come out, make sure we are mentally focused. If we keep our intensity up, we are expecting a good game." \nFreitag said that because of the parity in college soccer, no game can be taken lightly. He referred to a recent tie between No. 6 University of North Carolina and unranked High Point University, which had a record of 2-6-2, and said his team would prepare just as hard for IUPUI as any team.\n"You cannot take anyone lightly today in college soccer," Freitag said. "I don't care who it is. You have to be prepared to play, and we will be prepared to play."\nThe Jaguars are led by senior midfielder Vangel Nacovski and freshman forward Eric Weigman. Nacovski, who set the all-time Indiana state career scoring record at Merrillville High School, paces IUPUI with seven goals on the season.\nThe Hoosiers could be without starting freshman defender Ofori Sarkodie, who broke his nose in Saturday's game against Northwestern. Sarkodie has come on strong lately for the Hoosiers, starting three straight games. He is questionable for Tuesday's game.\nIU will look to extend its unbeaten streak to seven games against the in-state rival. With three conference games and five total games left before the postseason, the Hoosiers want to build on their momentum each time they take the field, freshman midfielder Eric Alexander said.\n"We got a good thing going, so we want to keep this going as long as we can," Alexander said. "We'll do fine. I think we will be prepared to play them, but it will be a challenge"