Hoosiers take Billiken Classic

ST. LOUIS — In its first action of regular season play, the IU men’s soccer team beat Saint Louis on Friday and Cincinnati on Sunday to win the Billiken Classic title.

While not officially credited with an assist, graduate student forward T.J. Popolizio found sophomore forward Eriq Zavaleta in the center of the box, 10 yards from goal.

Zavaleta’s first offering was blocked, but he buried the rebound in the lower left-hand corner of the goal to give Indiana the lead in the 68th minute.

It was a lead the Hoosiers did not relinquish, as they won 3-0 Sunday afternoon at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.

The Westfield, Ind., native’s second goal in as many games won the Billiken Classic for the Hoosiers.

Zavaleta scored his third goal on a penalty kick in the 85th minute.

“Me and Joe (Tolen), we came in and talked about changing it a little bit, bringing some energy,” Popolizio said. “Luckily, the ball came to the back post. I made a good run, outjumped the defender and was able to knock it back to Eriq. Eriq held him off and was able to finish.

“He did a great job, and he’s going to finish that every time.”

Senior goalkeeper Luis Soffner preserved the tenuous lead in the 78th minute with his first of two saves. The Bearcats’ Cole DeNormandie attempted his team’s fourth shot, a free kick from 35 yards away, just right of the middle of the field.

The Hoosiers added two more goals in the final eight minutes.

IU Coach Todd Yeagley said the game should have been decided sooner.

“We needed to play with more urgency,” he said. “We had too much of the ball in the first half to not get more good finishes and good looks. We weren’t aggressive enough and sharp enough in the final pass.

“We’ve got to learn from this game. We should’ve been up a couple in the first half, and this game should’ve been over. That’s the mentality.”

Indiana doubled its lead on a corner kick in the 83rd minute. Junior midfielder Harrison Petts found junior midfielder Jacob Bushue at the intersection of the six yard box and the end line on the left side.

Bushue crossed the ball to Caleb Konstanski, and the senior defender doubled
IU’s lead.

Zavaleta added a penalty kick two minutes later.

In total, IU outshot Cincinnati 16-5 and attempted nine corners to the Bearcats’ three.
Indiana rallied to defeat Saint Louis on Friday, surviving a barrage of early pressure from the Billikens

“It’s so tough to come out here on opening night for SLU,” junior midfielder A.J. Corrado said. “They had an unbelievable crowd, and that fueled them. They were extremely tough to play against. That first 30 minutes, they were all over the place. They went up early. We were calm.”

Billikens’ defender Jon Roeckle led Saint Louis to a 1-0 lead in the 22nd minute. His shot was deflected, but senior goalkeeper Luis Soffner could not recover back to his right to make the save.

Corrado’s hustle helped IU equalize 12 minutes later as he assisted on Zavaleta’s goal, his first of the regular season.

“I took a glance up. We had a couple guys in the box,” Corrado said. “Eriq’s a great finisher. I know if I can find him in the box, something good’s probably gonna happen.”