Single goal in overtime ends IU’s playoff run

One foot offsides. One goal taken back. One slip. One pass. One shot. One goal.
In the end, it was all that separated the IU men’s soccer team in its Sweet 16 match against top-seeded North Carolina on Sunday  at Fetzer Field in Chapel Hill, N.C.

But it was all too much, as the Hoosiers dropped the game 1-0 in overtime, and the Tar Heels knocked Indiana out of the third round of the NCAA Tournament for the second time in three years.

After keeping Old Dominion, the No. 2 offense in the country in goals per game, scoreless last weekend, the Hoosiers were again up against one of the top scoring threats in the country.
 
North Carolina came into Sunday’s game having scored 52 goals, yet during the first half and part of the second, IU seemed to have the more potent offensive attack.
In the game’s opening minutes, Indiana gained the first five corner kicks between the two teams and constantly attacked North Carolina goalkeeper Scott Goodwin.

Yet, even with the quick opportunities the Hoosiers were able to create, IU Coach Todd Yeagley’s team failed to record a shot on goal Sunday.

Yeagley said his players did everything he and his coaching staff asked of them but just couldn’t put together a goal.

“Our team left everything on the field today,” Yeagley said. “They took on the No. 1 seed, and it took every ounce for that team to get a victory. I felt the whole time our team was very confident, played well and were the aggressors today in the match, and after the sting goes away, we can be proud of what we’ve done.”

Perhaps no one felt the sting of the loss more than senior defender Chris Estridge, who played in his last game as a Hoosier and was the center of both of the game’s most pivotal moments: one that took a goal away from the Hoosiers and one that ended not only his season but his career at IU.

Midway through the second half, the Hoosiers were pushing for the game’s first goal, as sophomore midfielder Nikita Kotlov took the ball wide down the field.

After the game, Estridge said he thought Kotlov would play the ball to him, but the ball was sent to freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta, who shot it and had it blocked before sending it into the back of the net.

The IU players and fans yelled in triumph, as they thought they had scored the go-ahead goal, but Estridge’s momentum carried him what he said was “just a foot” offsides, and the goal was waived off.

The teams would both trade shots through the final minutes, with junior goalkeeper Luis Soffner making a few crucial saves to push the match into overtime, where the Hoosiers were just 0-1-5 before Sunday.

With less than four minutes left in the first overtime, the Tar Heels were threatening again, but it looked to be just another routine clear that the Hoosiers had done so many times in the previous 96 minutes.

But as a Hoosier cleared the ball to the top of his own box, North Carolina’s Kirk Urso rebounded the ball, and Estridge ran to cover him.

Estridge lost his footing, slipping to the ground, as Urso slotted the ball to his teammate Billy Schuler, who sent it past Soffner into the back of the net for the win.
“It was a good pass to goal,” Soffner said. “He gave it a good turn, and he’s one of the best forwards out there, and he can really finish.”

Soffner said he thought that, as a whole, he and his back line played as well Sunday as in their past several games, as the Hoosiers came in without a loss in their previous 10 games.

“We played really good as a unit today,” Soffner said. “Our communication in our last couple games has been really good, but we knew going in that we were up against a really good, attack-minded team, and we knew we would have our hands full.”