Xavier senior goalkeeper Eric Ossswald ran over and hugged the goal post.
The same goalpost that kept IU sophomore Tanner Thompson’s penalty kick in the ninth minute out of the back of the net.
The same goalpost that might be the reason IU was eliminated from the NCAA Tournament.
“It’s definitely one of those things where we built up equity, built up luck and it paid off for us there,” Osswald said.
That missed penalty by Thompson was one of many clear scoring opportunities that IU failed to capitalize on in a 2-1 loss against Xavier on Sunday in a second-round NCAA tournament match.
The penalty was caused by a long throw-in from IU senior Jamie Vollmer. After Vollmer launched the ball into the box it bounced around for awhile, eventually hitting the hand of Xavier junior Chris Moore.
Thompson has been IU’s penalty kick taker all season.
“I saw the goalie go right so I knew that I just had to hit the whole side of the left goal,” Thompson said. “Just mishit it.”
A few more inches to the right and IU would have been leading 1-0.
“The good thing about Tanner is that, if anything, he just heightened his play,” Yeagley said. “He felt like he had to carry the team and at times it was just a matter of when that final shot opportunity would come to him.”
IU’s next major scoring chance came in the 13th minute originating from an IU corner. Doody curled the ball in where Grant Lillard was rising above the Xavier defense. He tried redirecting the ball towards the back post but sent his shot too far wide.
Just four minutes later, another IU player found himself in front of goal with another opportunity to give IU the lead.
After some nice build up play from Thompson and Doody on the left side, Thompson played a through ball toward the goal line along the edge of the box toward Doody.
Doody possessed it and played a ball on the ground to the near post where IU junior Femi Hollinger-Janzen was making a run unmarked.
His shot went wide of the post.
IU continued to press after halftime, spending most of the half attacking the Xavier goal but was unable to score another goal. The Hoosiers also weren’t able to create a chance at any of the ones they missed in the first half.
Xavier Coach Andy Fleming said his team is used to defending, and he knew his team would have to defend a lot at the end of the match.
“Jerry Yeagley would say that it’s not about style points, and no one asks about style points,” Fleming said. “You’re going to survive the game and late in the game we survived the game.”
