The win brought IU’s preseason record to 2-1 despite being out-shot by the Golden Eagles 9-7 during the match. Each team had two shots on goal, however both of IU’s found the back of the net while Marquette couldn’t beat junior goalkeeper Colin Webb with its two first half shots on goal.
“This is more like a regular season game and that’s why we continue to come here,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “You’ve got this kind of atmosphere and the opponents are always tough.”
Both of IU’s goals came near the start of each of the two halves. The first was a header from junior defender Phil Fives that looped over the Marquette goalkeeper’s head and to the back post in the 12th minute.
The goal was assisted by junior defender Billy McConnell, who beat a Marquette defender down the right flank before sending his cross in to Fives.
“That’s not an easy finish,” Yeagley said of Fives’ goal. “What I liked about Phil was that he saw the keeper off a little bit and just nodded it over to the back post. Really nice goal to start the day.”
While Yeagley may have been impressed by the opening goal, he was even more pleased with the second.
Freshman defender Jeremiah Gutjahr started down the left flank and saw redshirt freshman defender Tim Mehl waiting just inside the box.
Gutjahr delivered the ball to Mehl, who proceeded to hit what Yeagley called “a wonder strike” into the back of the net in the 47th minute for his second goal of the preseason. The first came in an unofficial scrimmage against Valparaiso last week.
“It’s nice to see Timmy on the board. He’s a player we like in a lot of variety of ways, and one of them is his strike and he showed it tonight,” Yeagley said. “He did well defensively, which is most important.”
Yeagley said he was also impressed by who was involved in the second goal, a pair of freshman defenders fighting for playing time.
Regardless of where, or how often, Yeagley uses the variety of young players at his disposal this year, he wants them confident and able to contribute if need be.
Playing these young players, and being able to see them in a competitive environment was the most important thing that happened Saturday night. Yeagley said he wanted to experiment with a variety of rotations and that the ensuing result would be extra.
“Marquette’s a good side, and we wanted, obviously, to get a result, but we had some plans tonight that we wanted to get done with some rotation and some players regardless of the score at the time,” Yeagley said. “I thought we were able to accomplish that and still get the result.”
