Men's soccer go 1-1 in tournament

IU split the two games it played in the Adidas/IU Legends Classic this weekend by coming from behind and defeating Southern Methodist 2-1 Friday and falling to UCLA in overtime 1-0 Sunday in front of a record crowd of 7,720 fans.

The Hoosiers’ first test of the weekend came against SMU.

The Hoosiers went down one goal early in the 10th minute of the game. The Mustangs’ Alfred Koroma slipped behind Billy McConnell. Michael King then made a long cross to Koroma, who buried a low shot in the bottom right corner of the net.

“Billy had a tough start to the game,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “He’s a freshman, and he’s not the first to have that. It’s just when you’re a defender, it’s magnified. He rebounded very well. I think he played the last 15-20 minutes the way we know he can play.”

The Indiana defense, led by senior Jacob Bushue and junior Kerel Bradford, was able to shut down Koroma and the Mustang attack for the rest of the game.

Bradford said the team knew Koroma would be the Mustangs go-to guy, and once the team had a couple minutes to get used to his play, they handled him well.

Indiana scored the equalizing goal in the 42nd minute when senior defender Matt McKain hit a rocket off the cross bar, and the rebound found the head of sophomore forward Femi Hollinger-Janzen, who redirected the ball past Jamie Ibarra.

The Hoosiers controlled the pace from then on.

IU’s game-winning goal came in the 72nd minute on a free kick from junior Patrick Doody. Senior midfielder A.J. Corrado tapped the ball to Doody, who shot a hard ball from 25 feet for his first career goal.

Doody had taken similar shots from the same distance that had just missed throughout the game, and he was finally rewarded.

“I hit two pretty well before that, so I was looking for it,” Doody said. “I knew whoever was going to hit it was going to do well with it, and we had been practicing it. I kept my head low and got a good ball.”

On Sunday, the Hoosiers were locked in a dogfight with No. 9 UCLA for 90 minutes, plus some.

The Hoosiers and the Bruins both had several chances in the first half.

The Hoosier defense and keeper Michael Soderlund held the Bruins off of the scoreboard for the first 90 minutes.

The Hoosiers had scoring chances in the second half, and the team continued to build on that momentum.

However, the UCLA defense, led by shutdown defender Joe Sofia and keeper Earl Edwards Jr., denied the Hoosiers any points.

Tensions ran high with 18 minutes left in regulation when Aaron Simmons took down freshman forward Tommy Thompson in what appeared to be the penalty box.

Simmons was only given a yellow card, which sent Yeagley into a rage. Doody’s free kick was blocked, and the Hoosiers were sent back to the drawing board.

Minutes later, Thompson was dragged down again on a similar play, this time by Sofia. Sofia was issued a red card, which set the stage for a penalty kick by junior midfielder Dylan Mares.

However, Edwards Jr. easily grabbed his soft shot to the lower left corner of the frame.
“I did what I could at the time, I’d like to say,” Mares said. “Looking at it again, maybe I’d like to go back because I didn’t score.

“It’s shot creation and that’s something we need more of, and I did what I could at the time.”

The Bruins played back for the remaining minutes because they were playing a man down due to Sofia’s red card, but the Hoosiers could not capitalize. The game went to overtime.

Within one minute of overtime, the Bruin’s patience paid off.

Victor Chavez beat the Indiana defense, and when Soderlund tried to dive out and block the ball away, the loose ball landed under Chavez’s foot.

He tapped the ball into the back of the Hoosier net and ended the game.

“It’s always frustrating, but I’m not a bit concerned about this team,” Bradford said. “We didn’t get the result, but we’re just going to channel that for this upcoming game on Friday.”