IU plays to 2-2 tie, out of contention for Big Ten crown

Freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta has come up big when his team needed him this season, but it wasn’t enough on Sunday.

Zavaleta scored his team-leading ninth goal to break a 1-1 tie in the 67th minute of the Hoosiers 2-2 tie Sunday at Northwestern.

With the tie, the Hoosiers (10-3-4, 2-1-2) were eliminated from contention for the Big Ten regular season championship going into their season finale next Saturday against Ohio State in Bloomington.

Despite a tie the Hoosiers could not afford, Zavaleta and his teammates are looking forward.

“Nothing changes,” Zavaleta said. “We’re disappointed obviously that we couldn’t get the result here, but the same mindset applies. We have to win every game from here on out, and we have to play a lot more games than just Sunday.”

Northwestern took a 1-0 lead late in the first half after a goal from Lepe Seetane.
IU Coach Todd Yeagley elected to start sophomore midfielder A.J. Corrado in place of sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts to start the second half. The move paid quick dividends. Corrado tied the game at 1-1 with 37 minutes remaining in the second half on his second goal of the season.

“We had a nice little combination of passes and the ball came to me pretty quickly,” Corrado said. “I touched it and hit it as soon as I could, and it hit the post and went in.”

Fourteen minutes later, Zavaleta put the Hoosiers ahead off an assist from senior midfielder Alec Purdie.

“We went on a counter attack, and (Alec) Purdie took the ball wide. (The) whole defense attracted to him, and I hung out on the other side,” Zavaleta said. “He picked his head up, and played me a good through ball, and the goalie came out to the top of the box. I beat him to the ball and took a touch around him and hit it with my left foot.”

The Hoosiers kept the lead until Oliver Kupe tied the score at 2-2 with five minutes remaining in the second half to send the game to overtime.

Both teams struggled to find any offense in either 10-minute overtime period. Zavaleta appeared to have the game-winning goal with 45 seconds remaining in the second overtime, but the goal was waived off on an offsides call.

“The referee said that on the flight of the ball that (Jacob) Bushue touched it, and I was in an offside’s position,” Zavaleta said. “To my knowledge, Bushue didn’t touch it, but that was the explanation we got.”

The Hoosiers didn’t get the result that they wanted, but Yeagley said he felt his team played well and will continue to play well going forward.

“We knew what we needed to do,” Yeagley said. “It didn’t happen, but there is a lot more soccer to be played. We need to get better as a unit and individually, and if we do that, we will position ourselves well for tournament play.”