IU wins Big Ten opener

The Hoosiers continued their winning history Friday in their 100th Big Ten matchup.

IU beat Wisconsin 1-0 in their conference season opener and first road game of their Big Ten season.

“We get to start off with a win in the Big Ten,” sophomore forward Will Bruin said after his team brought its all-time series record against Wisconsin to 33-3-4. “It would have been tough to start with a tie, or even a loss. It’s huge coming out with the win.”

IU took the pitch in Madison against previous assistant coach Todd Yeagley, expecting a high-intensity game.

What the Hoosiers got was an opponent that received two yellow cards and a red card and scored no goals.

“We can obviously still play better, but, first Big Ten game, it was good to get a win and a shutout,” freshman goalkeeper Luis Soffner said. “Our defense is solidifying as the season goes on. We were really solid filling the back.”

But Soffner did not leave out accrediting Bruin for his help to the team. Bruin’s fifth goal on the season was IU’s only shot of twelve that was netted.

“Will helped us out again,” Soffner said. “I think all around we’re just starting to gel as a team more.”

Bruin has scored the game-winning goal three times this season and leads the team with five goals.

Regardless of the points he has put on the scoreboard, Bruin said he does not feel like he’s leading the team.

“We were attacking, and I saw Tommy got the ball,” Bruin said of the help he received on his goal. “We made eye contact and I just started going, and he just hit the ball deep and I just ran onto it and got it under control.”

Throughout the season, Bruin has consistently walked off the pitch, saying he missed many opportunities to put IU ahead by more goals. But after Friday’s win, Bruin’s reaction was not the same.

“I probably only had one or two other chances, good chances,” Bruin said. “I’ll take scoring one out of two any game.”

But there is always improvement for the Hoosiers.

“We need to work on, when we get the lead, not going into a defensive shell and just keep playing our game and keep attacking,” Bruin said.

Walking out of Yeagley’s new home with a victory is what the Hoosier team wanted. Regardless, IU coach Mike Freitag said seeing his previous coach on the other bench was a somewhat sad experience.

“It’s sad and happy because that’s what Todd wants to be, a head coach, and he’s a very good one,” Freitag said. “I was happy to see him have his dream.”

However, Soffner said seeing Yeagley wearing the red and white of Wisconsin was not much different from when he wore the colors at Indiana.

“You saw the same old guy on the bench,” Soffner said. “You could still hear him yelling the whole game. It was good to see him again and definitely fun to play against him. We definitely miss him, but we did what we needed to for our team and came out with the win.”