Freitag’s team rolls against Michigan; quarterfinals next

Up 1-0 in the 73rd minute, IU keeper Chay Cain threw his body parallel to the pitch and stoned away a point blank, game-tying attempt from a Michigan attacker.

The save keyed up the crowd at Bill Armstrong Stadium, but it didn’t mean the Hoosiers were out of trouble just yet.

Two minutes later, another Wolverine shot flew at Cain. The ball was out of the senior keeper’s reach, and if it had been a few inches lower, the NCAA round of 16 match would have been tied.

    SLIDESHOW: IU vs. Michigan

Luckily for Cain and IU, it wasn’t, and the crossbar notched its first save of the game.

With the Wolverines pouncing, the Hoosiers opened up their counter-attack with two goals to put Michigan away 3-0. The defeat advances IU to the NCAA Tournament’s quarterfinals.

After a Michigan corner in the 77th minute, sophomore Andy Adlard, who had the game’s first goal, played a cross deep into the UM box to senior Brad Ring. Ring met the ball and struck it to the top right corner of the UM net.

“I think at that point you look at it like a cushion,” Cain said. “Because when you are up one goal and the game starts getting tight, you don’t want to be the guy to make that mistake. You try to do everything perfect. And I think that sometimes that makes it harder.”

Cain said the second goal took the pressure off his team and led to the third and final goal.

Down 2-0, the Wolverines brought more attackers close to the IU third.

The aggressiveness led to another IU counter, this one off of a corner kick.

Cain and IU coach Mike Freitag attributed part of the team’s success on the counter-attack to its mentality toward corners.

“Every corner kick Andy yells out, ‘C’mon guys survive it,’ and I yell, ‘Be committed,’” Cain said after the game. “And we realize that as a team we can survive it. ... And we are able to make those little plays that make the difference.”

His coach added, “We have made a conscious effort late in the season to get better on restarts. We have competitions (in practice) almost every day.”

The UM corner landed at the feet of Hoosier senior Brian Ackley, who stabbed a through pass past the thin Michigan defense to a sprinting senior John Mellencamp. Mellencamp took the ball and easily beat the Wolverine goalkeeper one-on-one.

With the win, IU, the Tournament’s No. 6 seed, heads to New York to take on the Red Storm of St. John’s, the No. 3 seed.

The Red Storm advanced to the quarterfinal after defeating UC Irvine 3-2 on Saturday.

After the game, Michigan coach Steve Burns said how he thought the Hoosiers would fare, adding he wanted to see them win because he was rooting for the Big Ten conference.

“St. John’s is tough. It’s going to be a good game,” he said. “It’s tough to pick a winner. Indiana is going to have to do the same thing they did to us. And that is be very disciplined, sit in, get St. John’s, who has a very good change of possession, to play in front of them and give them nothing in behind (IU’s defense).”