Hoosiers lose 3-2 to Louisville after 2-0 lead

With 18 minutes left in regulation, junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner and his teammates thought they had it all wrapped up.

The Hoosiers had scored a quick goal in each half Wednesday night against No. 11 Louisville at Jerry Yeagley Field, and with a 2-0 lead against a team coming off two losses, the team appeared to be in control.

“We were executing our game plan perfectly, playing well, keeping the ball when we needed to, pressuring when we needed to. We were kind of in cruise control,” senior midfielder Alec Purdie said.

But in the span of less than a minute, Louisville stormed back with two goals, pushing the game into overtime.

“A 2-0 lead is one of the more difficult ones to psychologically manage once it’s lost, but once we got through it, we got back into our rhythm,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said.

Less than five minutes into the extra period, Soffner watched yet another one fly past him into the back of the net. Kenney Walker had scored his second goal of the game, leaving Soffner and his teammates sitting on the field in despair.

“It’s tough,” Yeagley said. “We came into this game against the team who played in the final and could have easily won a national championship last year, and we outplayed them in every category. But they made a couple plays late and we lost a little belief in the key moment.”

Freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta scored IU’s first goal of the game, about 11 minutes in.
Going into halftime, Yeagley said he was very pleased with how his team had rebounded after Sunday’s loss against Wisconsin.

“We went into half and continued to talk about what we continued to do, and be very aware of where their strengths lie,” Yeagley said.

It appeared they had Louisville figured out. Less than 11 minutes into the second half, Purdie scored off a corner kick from sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts. Petts’s ball connected with sophomore midfielder Jacob Bushue’s head before hitting the ground, where Purdie drilled it into the back of the net.

But the tables began to turn as Louisville’s Colin Rolfe added in Louisville’s first goal with 17:05 left.

Walker then took control of the game, scoring less than a minute after Rolfe before putting the game winner past Soffner in overtime.

Yeagley, though, told his players to keep their heads up after a close game with last year’s runner-up.

“Now we know where we are,” Yeagley said. “I feel this group now should be able to hold their head high and know they’re capable of playing with anyone. This was the best team we’ve played, and our guys rose to the occasion and performed very well. It’s just unfortunate that a few moments slipped away and we couldn’t get the result.”