IU men's soccer remains undefeated, 5-0-2

Entering weekend play IU goalkeeper Luis Soffner had been playing well. His success didn’t change, as he posted two shutouts to help keep the Hoosiers undefeated.

The No. 9 Hoosiers (5-0-2) played to their second scoreless tie of the season with No. 14 St. Johns on Friday and Sunday defeated Rutgers 2-0.

Soffner has three shutouts this season and has allowed only four goals in seven matches.

IU Coach Todd Yeagley was pleased with the results of the weekend despite having another scoreless tie. He said he was proud of the effort his team showed.

“Anytime you leave your region, historically it is difficult to do (well), and we have a young team, new environments with difficult opponents and tough conditions,” Yeagley said. “I was pleased with a lot of our performance, to come away still unscathed. All in all, it was a good trip out East for us.”

After failing to score in two periods and overtime Friday night, the Hoosiers came out a little flat against Rutgers to begin the game.

“We were just kind of slow after the 110 minute game against St. Johns,” sophomore Blake Wise said. “As the game went on we found our momentum, and finally the goal came, and that boosted our confidence.”

Wise put in his third goal of the season in the 40th minute to get the Hoosiers going against Rutgers. Their intensity seemed to increase after that.

“I took a good touch, and luckily my defender was slow,” Wise said. “I beat him inside, and I hit it over the goalie and dipped into the goal.”

Transfer sophomore A.J. Corrado added his first goal as a Hoosier in the 51st minute to increase the lead to 2-0.

As for Soffner, the junior’s four-save weekend might not seem statistically mind-blowing, but his teammates are glad he’s in the net.

“Luis (Soffner) is playing dynamite right now,” Wise said. “He’s a stone wall in the back. He’s not letting anything get past him, making really big saves, and he’s really talkative with our back line.”

With a third of the season gone, Yeagley is starting to get a feel for what the Hoosiers have on both sides of the ball, and, thus far, he has liked what he has seen.

“We’re a deeper attacking team than we had hoped to be,” Yeagley said. “We were hoping to have some options, and that has proved to be the case. We’re a
much-improved defensive unit. Our returning players have come back in excellent form and we’ve made it difficult for teams to get good quality chances.”

The combination of Soffner and the defense has been dominant this season, keeping opponents off the scoreboard in four of the seven games.

“We are just getting comfortable with each other,” Soffner said. “It is good that our back line is not changing as much. It’s good that we’re becoming more comfortable and confident in each other, and we’re just playing well.”

As the Hoosiers open the Big Ten schedule at home Friday against Penn State, Soffner thinks the team is exactly where they need to be.

“We want to go win the Big Ten regular season and the Big Ten tournament this year,” Soffner said. “We have pretty good momentum.”