Men’s soccer wallops Tulsa, will face Akron in third round

Sixteen teams are left in the NCAA Tournament, and IU is one of them after a dominating 5-1 win against Tulsa at Bill Armstrong Stadium on Sunday.

Fifteen is the number on Cameron Jordan’s jersey. IU coach Todd Yeagley said the senior midfielder from Fort Wayne was one of the many heroes in the Hoosiers’ second-round win.

“We just kept pushing is what it came down to,” Jordan said. “The floodgates opened.”

Fourteen shots were taken by the Golden Hurricane, which was nowhere near enough to be effective against IU’s barrage of 25 shots, led by junior forward Will Bruin’s 12.

Thirteen seconds remaining in the first half, freshman midfielder Nikita Kotlov had just punched in the Hoosiers’ second goal of the game.

“The play he made to get us the goal before half was crucial,” Yeagley said. “He really stuck with it. Call that their sniffer goals, and he got it, so we were real pleased.”

Twelve games this year, Bruin has scored at least once, including Sunday’s contest in which he netted two goals, giving him a season total of 18 goals in 19 games.

Eleven teams remaining in the tournament are non-Big Ten schools. Five Big Ten teams made the NCAA Tournament this year, and after the second round, all remain in the field of 16.

“We’ve played the toughest schedule in the country, and whoever it happens to be, in this case Akron, we’ll go in there and be confident,” Yeagley said. “It couldn’t be a better matchup.”

Ten wins have been recorded by the Hoosiers so far this year — five of which have been at home — in Yeagley’s first year as coach. Sunday was his first NCAA Tournament win.

Nine games this season, the Hoosiers have scored more than one goal. IU averaged slightly less than 2 goals a game, and this year’s total of 36 is eight better than last year’s total.

Eight is the number Kotlov wears on his back, and he scored his first career game-winning goal Sunday, the third of his young career. He was back after a week of rehab because of a thigh contusion he suffered in a loss to Penn State on Nov. 12.

Seven shots were on goal for Tulsa, and only one of them reached the net when forward Ashley McInnes chipped a second-half shot over sophomore goalkeeper Luis Soffner. The goal made the score 3-1 with 37:13 to play.

Six years ago, IU made its last appearance in the College Cup. With Sunday’s win, the Hoosiers are two wins away from reaching the field of four. Like the 2004 College Cup, this year’s will be played in Santa Barbara, Calif.

Five Soffner saves kept the Golden Hurricane in check. Four of his saves came on 10 second-half Tulsa shots. It was the eighth time IU gave up a single goal this year.

Four players played off the bench for each team Sunday.

Three players recorded assists in the game. Sophomore midfielder Joe Tolen assisted Bruin in both his goals, while Bruin also recorded two assists — to Kotlov and freshman midfielder Harrison Petts. 

“The momentum was our way the whole entire first half,” Jordan said. “You keep on getting closer and closer, keep on feeling it and feeling it, keep on going and eventually one is going to go in for you. Then after that, all the rest of them will come through.”

Two yellow cards were handed out to Tulsa, one to Justin Chavez and the other to Blaine Gonsalves. Both cards came for hard fouls in the second half. They came after the Hoosiers had made the score 3-1.

“We had a really good week of practice this week,” Bruin said. “I mean, we got after it every day, which was a good thing, so I think everybody was mentally clicked (in). And our backs played a hell of a game, they played a great game. Every line played a great game. It was just ... that’s how you want to be playing come tournament time.”

One game down.