It took 98 minutes of soccer to separate IU and Ohio State on Saturday night at Bill Armstrong Stadium as Ohio State won 1-0 courtesy of a penalty.
Both teams had clear opportunities to break the deadlock in regulation but failed to take their chances. and it took a penalty in the first period of overtime to decide the tie.
The penalty decision drew strong protest from the IU players at the time of the call which followed through till the end of the game with a few of the players having to be restrained.
“After the game I shouldn’t be doing that, and I’ve got to control myself,” junior midfielder Tanner Thompson said. “What’s done is done. Just in the heat of the moment I was a little upset with the call.”
IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he felt that the penalty was a cruel way to end the game as he believed his team had more than matched Ohio State. The Hoosiers had 19 attempts on goal and were in control for most parts of the game. They restricted the Buckeyes to only eight attempts on goal.
The Buckeyes failed to create clear goal scoring opportunities. Ohio State forward Danny Jensen had a clear shot on a open goal in the 15th minute, but the Buckeyes rarely troubled goalkeeper Colin Webb.
The Hoosiers were fortunate to not concede from that defensive mistake but were also unable to score in the 29th minute when freshman Rees Wedderburn’s shot pinged against both the posts.
The Hoosiers would continue to try to break the deadlock but Yeagley said they were unlucky to not score, especially after fashioning so many opportunities.
“I thought whistle to whistle we were dominant,” Yeagley said. “It’s a good Ohio State team, and we gave them really nothing.”
Yeagley said he felt this is the cruel nature of the sport and the Hoosiers now have to move on from this game.
“Everything just went their way, and if you repeat that game then maybe it’s three in the back of the net and we shouldn’t be overreacting,” Yeagley said. “It’s the cruelness of our sport that at times you can dominate like that and have zeroes at the end.”
IU’s four game winning run has now come to an end, and it is now sitting at the bottom of the Big Ten rankings.
The Hoosiers will go on the road for their next Big Ten game as they face Maryland on Friday evening.
Yeagley is choosing not to look at the rankings as IU still has a good win percentage and record and is looking to put this disappointing result behind it and move forward.
“To me it’s the way we play,” Yeagley said. “I know we will find results, so I’m not looking at the table. Our record is still strong, and our RPI is still strong, and we are in a position to win some big games coming up, and it’s all we have to focus on so it’s not on what happened but what we have to do in front.”
