Floundering IU squad shut out in road loss to Spartans

Facing the top goal-scorer in the Big Ten, the IU men’s soccer team knew it needed to contain Michigan State senior forward Doug DeMartin from the opening whistle.

The Hoosiers held DeMartin in check until the 82nd minute, when he gave the Spartans a late lead. Michigan State freshman midfielder Domenic Barone put the game’s final goal away just 39 seconds later to upset the Hoosiers 2-0 in East Lansing on Sunday.

IU coach Mike Freitag said his team’s loss resulted from slow play on the field.

“There are not many positives you take out of a game like this,” he said. “Hopefully the only positive is how not to play. We were a little slow thinking, moving the ball and didn’t come with the energy we needed.”

Though they were unable to score, the first half saw plenty of offensive chances for the Hoosiers. Junior midfielder Eric Alexander had the best scoring opportunity three minutes into the match, when his shot hit the post and was cleared out by the Spartan defense. Senior midfielder John Mellencamp, senior forward Kevin Noschang and sophomore midfielder/forward Andy Adlard each had quality shots on goal, but to no avail.

The teams headed into the locker room at halftime in a defensive stalemate at 0-0.
It was not until the 70th minute that the Hoosiers had their best chance to get on the board in the second half. Sophomore defender Rich Balchan had two shots on goal.

With his first effort blocked back to him, Balchan’s follow-up attempt was pounced on by Michigan State goalkeeper Avery Steinlage, stopping the scoring opportunity.

DeMartin’s score came when he received the ball free on the right side of the penalty area and put it past IU senior goalkeeper Chay Cain. The score was DeMartin’s 11th of the season.

Almost immediately after, Barone’s shot in front of the net put the game out of reach for the Hoosiers. The finishing score was Barone’s first career goal.  

IU senior midfielder Billy Weaver said his team lacked the small aspects of the game needed to win.

“What it came down to was the small things – not finishing chances or staying a little bit too far away from our guy defensively,” he said. “Hopefully, we will get sick of losing and just work harder in practice and get more focus. There are a lot of things we could do better.”

The loss drops the Hoosiers to 6-4-2 on the season and 1-2-0 in the Big Ten. The team returns home for a 7:30 p.m. contest Thursday with in-state foe Notre Dame at Bill Armstrong Stadium.

Freitag said there is much work to be done before facing the No. 15 Fighting Irish.

“We will go back to the drawing board and look at what our weaknesses and strengths are to see what we can do better,” Freitag said. “We will go back to work, and that is the only way we will know what to do.”