The IU men’s soccer team’s 3-0 win against Evansville on Wednesday night at Bill Armstrong Stadium was a much-needed one, especially since it snapped a three game winless streak for the Hoosiers.
IU lost its first two Big Ten games to Penn State and Rutgers, and also tied with Butler in between after surrendering a two-goal lead.
The Hoosiers will now resume Big Ten action after chalking up their biggest win of the season, and senior Femi-Hollinger Janzen, who scored two goals on Wednesday and has four in three games, said he cannot wait to travel up north to face Northwestern on Sunday.
“I’m really looking forward to Sunday,” Hollinger-Janzen said. “We just have to keep up our communication and composure and know that as a group we’ll be fine and do well.”
The Hoosiers have not lost to the Wildcats since 2011, where they lost 3-2 on penalties in the semi-final of the Big Ten Tournament.
The Wildcats (3-3-1) are also struggling for form this season and have a similar record to the Hoosiers (4-3-1).
Northwestern opened their Big Ten season with a 2-1 win against Ohio State but lost their second game 3-0 to Michigan and are currently fifth in the Big Ten standings.
IU Coach Todd Yeagley is also a much happier man after Wednesday’s result and said the team had ironed out the issues that were present during their three game winless streak.
“A lot of the goals that we gave up were isolation scenarios, it’s not finger pointing,” Yeagley said. “We go as a team and we lose as a team, and there were just some discipline issues, and if we cut that out, we’re in great shape.”,
Sophomore defender Grant Lillard also said he believes the team has fixed the problems that were present during the three-game streak where the usually resolute Hoosier defense conceded seven goals.
“We went back to focusing on little things such as better communication, things that we were doing at the beginning of the year,” Lillard said. “Because at the beginning of the year we were great defensively.”
Yeagley said he is pleased with the way the team reacted after the 4-1 loss to Rutgers and said he believes the reaction of the group will go a long way during the course of the season, and he said he hopes the Hoosiers’ cohesiveness will bring them their first Big Ten win Sunday.
“There’s going to be adversity in the season, and I can give you plenty of scenarios in championship years that we’ve had it,” Yeagley said. “How we respond to it and how we handle it as a group is how we’ll go this year, and I think they kind of took ownership this week.”
