Hoosiers halt losing streak with win, tie

The IU men’s soccer team broke its three-game losing streak Friday only to tie another match Sunday.

On Friday, the Hoosiers caught up with the Bakersfield Roadrunners, defeating them 4-1, but in Sunday’s match, freshman Tommy Thompson scored the lone goal in a 1-1 tie against UC Irvine.

The Hoosiers (2-3-1) started out Friday’s game on the ropes when Bakersfield struck first in the 24th minute with David Velasquez’s goal, which went past IU sophomore goalkeeper Michael Soderlund in his first game back from a hip injury.

“Going down early was tough because it just seemed like the last three games things were going our way, and they get a break just like that,” freshman Tanner Thompson said. “We knew there was plenty of time left and tried to bounce back, which we did.”

Tanner played a critical role in the Hoosiers’ victory Friday.

After brother Tommy scored his first career goal to tie the game, Tanner beat out a Bakersfield defender in the right corner and laid a centering cross in the lap of senior midfielder Jacob Bushue for the lead goal.

Tanner struck again when he passed the ball off to sophomore forward Femi Hollinger-Janzen, who buried the ball for the first insurance goal.

Senior midfielder A.J. Corrado scored the final goal of the game with a diving header on a cross from junior midfielder Patrick Doody in the 75th minute. 

“That first one was crucial,” Bushue said. “If you don’t get that first one at half time, they can just kind of sit in and try to play out their game. It made them have to play against us, and once we got that second one, we thought we could just keep rolling on them.”

On Sunday, the Hoosiers struck first with a goal from Tommy in the eighth minute of the game.

Despite maintaining possession for most of the first half, that would be the last shot on goal the Hoosiers would have in the half. The UC Irvine defense was able to smother the Hoosier offense, and UC Irvine finally scored the equalizer.

UC Irvine’s answering goal came in the 36th minute on a free kick from Mats Bjurman from about 40 feet out when the softly struck ball bounced past the Indiana defense and Soderlund.

The Anteaters continued to lay the pressure on the Hoosiers for the remaining minutes of the half.

“It was a soft goal,” Yeagley said. “We need to be better than that. We’ve given up some great goals and some soft goals, but we’ve gotta be better than that. That’s how we finished the half. We were a little psychologically bruised from that.”

The Anteater defense played physically, committing 27 fouls, and held the Hoosiers to four shots for the entire game, while launching 16 of their own.

Indiana’s best chance in the second half came off a header from senior midfielder Nikita Kotlov in the 49th minute, but the ball hit the bottom of the crossbar and bounced out.

In the final 10 seconds, UC Irvine came out with an offensive onslaught in front of the Hoosier goal. Lester Hayes III, who led the Anteater attack throughout, had an open net on the right side, but his shot bounced off the post to end regulation play.

Both teams went scoreless in extra minutes to end the game.

“I think they out-played us,” Kotlov said. “The defense didn’t give us much. They didn’t even give us many half chances that we wish we could have taken if we had them. They made it tough for us to find any chances because they were balanced all around.”

Follow reporter Alyssa Extin on Twitter @Alyssa_Extin.