Hoosiers battle for tie against Louisville

LOUISVILLE — Sophomore forward Eriq Zavaleta’s opportunistic goal in the 69th minute rolled through the legs of Louisville goalkeeper Mike Mauro and provided the equalizer, but neither team could find a third score.

The IU men’s soccer team notched a 2-2 draw Wednesday night at Cardinal Park.

In each of the last three games, Indiana scored in the first half. Junior midfielder Nikita Kotlov scored his first goal of the season in the 26th minute to give the Hoosiers a 1-0 lead.

Kotlov said he is optimistic his first goal will spark him.

“It was frustrating,” he said. “I had several good opportunities to score and haven’t been able to put one in. Coach has been saying, ‘It’s going to come. It’s going to come.’ Hopefully that was the goal I needed to continue helping the team by scoring.”

Indiana was 8-0 in games, in which they took a lead in regulation entering Wednesday, but a couple miscues allowed the Cardinals to equalize and then take the lead in the 53rd and 61st minutes. Kotlov attributed the goals to careless mistakes.

Sophomore defender Kerel Bradford said an unfortunate situation created the Cardinals’ second goal.

“We just kind of got caught with it under our legs,” he said. “It happens. It’s soccer — just unfortunate. I tried to get the ball. It just slipped under me.”

Eight minutes earlier, Cardinal Ryan Smith’s poor challenge against senior defender Caleb Konstanski earned him a yellow card. Smith earned his second yellow, and a subsequent red, in the first overtime as his feet tangled up with sophomore midfielder Patrick Doody’s. Smith beat senior goalkeeper Luis Soffner, but the goal was disallowed, and Smith was sent off.

IU Coach Todd Yeagley said after the game that Konstanski is OK.

The Cardinals played with all 10 men behind the ball when the Hoosiers possessed in the second overtime.

“We didn’t necessarily execute very well when we were up a man,” Yeagley said. “That’s something we’ll have to look at really closely on film and talk about. We have trained (for) it, yet we weren’t sharp enough in our passing. Legs were tired.     

“We could’ve been better in that (second) overtime. They certainly weren’t trying to get one. Louisville was very satisfied with it staying a tie.”

Last season, the Cardinals scored three unanswered goals to capture a 3-2 win in overtime against the Hoosiers at Bill Armstrong Stadium. That result was not lost on the Hoosiers entering this match.

“It was a chip on my shoulder,” Bradford said. “I had more grit than I usually have just because last year we had them. In this game, we had ’em again and let it slip through our fingers. Luckily, we didn’t let it slip like it did last year.”

Despite the draw, the Hoosiers maintained their unbeaten streak on the road. At 4-0-1, they’ve outscored opponents 11-4 in away matches. Indiana also moved to 1-0-2 in overtime matches. Kotlov said the result displayed the Hoosiers’ character.

Bradford said rallying to earn the draw provided a significant result.

“It was a little unfortunate that we did get the draw, but keep pushing forward,” Bradford said. “This game isn’t going to stop us at all.”