IU leaves South Bend 2 wins richer

The Hoosiers are on a roll.\nFueled by the big wins last weekend, the IU men’s soccer team traveled to the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament in South Bend, Ind. There they took on Northern Illinois and Rhode Island, winning both matches.\nThe Hoosiers faced Northern Illinois first, where a goal by freshman midfielder Daniel Kelly gave the Hoosiers the 1-0 lead that proved to be the difference in the game – and its only scoring.\nThe Hoosiers dominated the match, outshooting the Huskies 18-10. Eleven of those shots came in the second half. Junior goalkeeper Chay Cain tallied up five saves before having the wind knocked out of him in the last 20 seconds of the game. He was replaced by senior keeper Chris Munroe in his first appearance this season.\nThe Hoosiers rested Saturday before taking on Rhode Island on Sunday morning. Rhode Island started off strong, catching the Hoosiers off guard and tallying their first and only goal of the game in the first five minutes of play. Although the team was disappointed to give up the early goal, IU coach Mike Freitag saw it as a positive.\n“In some ways, the goal was good. It put some fire in us,” Freitag said. “You don’t ever want to give up goals, but maybe that’s what you need to get things going.”\nSophomore midfielder Eric Alexander agreed, and said that the score helped the team refocus.\n“(The goal) was an unlucky break,” Alexander said. “But it put us on our heels and we rebounded as a team.”\nIU answered quickly after the Rams’ initial goal. No more than three minutes later, Kelly headed the ball toward the goal, but his shot went wide. Rams’ goalkeeper Chris Pennock notched his first save of the game five minutes after that off a shot by junior midfielder Brad Ring.\nIU got the tying goal it was seeking at the 22:56 mark, when Alexander connected with the ball outside the box and sent it sailing into the net. Less than 10 minutes later, senior defender Greg Stevning connected with junior forward Kevin Noschang, who tallied the second goal of the game. It was Noschang’s third goal of the season. \nCain saw the most action between the 35th and 41st minutes, when he tallied four saves off of six Rhode Island shots. Cain had five saves on the game.\nThe first half saw the Rams outshoot the Hoosiers 10-9, but the second half was a different story. IU had seven shots to Rhode Island’s one, including a goal by freshman forward Michael Roach. It was Roach’s first career goal as a Hoosier.\nThe Hoosiers have one more tournament before single-game play begins. Next week, IU travels to St. Louis to battle Creighton and Saint Louis in the Saint Louis/Nike Classic.