It was the first time that IU failed to gain all three points in a match away from Bloomington, and it was also the first time that Wisconsin gained any points in a Big Ten match this season.
“We knew it would be an important three points to stay in the hunt to win the regular season,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “I think the guys’ legs just started to wear on them.”
Wisconsin found the back of the net first, courtesy of a converted penalty from junior Drew Conner.
IU sophomore Derek Creviston slid to try and block the shot and deflected the ball out of bounds.
IU thought the penalty might have been a little soft.
“It’s a game-changing moment when you do call one so I hope he was 100-percent sure in his mind about the call,” Yeagley said. “Clearly on the replay, it looked like it was a fair play.”
Despite that, IU continued to go forward and create chances all the way until the final whistle of the first half.
With nine seconds remaining in the half, IU equalized off of a corner kick from senior Patrick Doody that found the head of junior Matt Foldesy.
“It was important,” Yeagley said. “We didn’t come out great in that first half. To get the tying goal did give us a surge into the half, and I thought we really carried that into the ?second half.”
Foldesy continued his stretch of good form against not only with his goal but also with his distribution from the defensive midfield.
“He was playing well in the early part of the season, but he’s hit a new stride,” Yeagley said. “He’s filling in where he’s needed, playing off what we need more defensively or offensively, and that’s what we knew he could provide to us.”
It looked like IU had found the three points when sophomore Tanner Thompson scored in the 64th minute to put IU ahead.
Thompson received the ball on the left touchline and maneuvered his way past three Wisconsin defenders. When he had created enough space on the left edge of the box, he fired a shot into the inside of the right netting.
“That was probably ?individually the best goal of the year,” Foldesy said.
But senior Jacob Brindle wasn’t ready to concede defeat on his senior night. Brindle redirected a cross from junior Adam Lauko in the 72nd minute to equalize.
Neither team could find a goal in the remainder of regulation or overtime and the match ended in a draw. This was IU’s fourth overtime match this season. Each has ended in a draw.
“We would have loved to come in here and gotten the three points and had the potential to host the Big Ten Tournament,” Foldesy said. “I think overall it’s not a ?terrible result.”
The draw eliminated IU from the Big Ten regular season title race and means that if they want to host a ?quarterfinal game for the Big Ten Tournament, they will need to win Wednesday against Michigan State.
“We know that that wasn’t our best, and I think we respond very well to that,” Foldesy said. “We’ll get after it in practice and hopefully give our fans something to look forward to going into the Big Ten Tournament and NCAA’s.”
