His shot dipped over the wall, and for a second looked like it might sneak between Webb’s outstretched hand and the crossbar.
But Webb dove backwards and tipped the ball over the bar before grabbing the ensuing corner kick to seal IU’s 1-0 victory against Wisconsin on Sunday at Bill Armstrong Stadium in a Big Ten quarterfinal match.
“That’s exactly what you need,” junior defender Derek Creviston said of the save. “He knows he’s got to step up in these times, just as everybody else does and did what he needed to do.”
Creviston was missing his normal center back partner for that final free kick. Sophomore Grant Lillard left the game in the 78th minute after trying to bend down and head a ball out of the IU box. Instead of the ball, Lillard’s head met the foot of Wisconsin’s Nick Jones, who was given a red card for the play.
Lillard had a gash on his head and walked off into the locker room. IU Coach Todd Yeagley said he was cleared of a potential concussion and could have been available if the match went to overtime.
But for the last 10 minutes, IU had to do without one of the best defenders in the Big Ten. The 6-foot-4 Lillard normally roams free on restarts so he can attack anywhere the ball goes.
“Grant’s a huge part of our defense. He’s a fantastic defender, and he’s a huge player for us on both sides of the ball,” Yeagley said. “And when they’re playing balls in the box the last 10 minutes, and you have arguably your best guy in there out, it doesn’t help us.”
But IU kept strong those last 10 minutes to protect its one-goal lead provided by senior forward Femi Hollinger-Janzen.
His team-leading eighth goal of the season started from the defense. Junior defender Billy McConnell sent a ball out of the back and across the center line in the 22nd minute. Hollinger-Janzen was waiting for a clearance to run after and sprinted down the right sideline.
He got around the Wisconsin defender and into the box before poking the ball past Wisconsin goalkeeper Adrian Remeniuk from a tight angle.
“It was definitely big to get the first goal there,” Hollinger-Janzen said. “They play that man-marking style defense, which is sometimes tough to play through. It was just big time to get that.”
After the goal Wisconsin was forced to push forward out of its own box. For a brief time after the goal, the Badgers sent multiple balls into the box, but none forced Webb to make a save.
The IU defense held and kept Webb untested until that final minute, even without its center back.
“We tell the guys we’d just love them to get one goal — that’s all we want them to get — and we’re just trying to keep the clean sheet,” Creviston said. “We know they’re going to do their job and we’ll do ours.”
The shutout is the third in IU’s last four matches, and the win was the fifth in a row for the Hoosiers.
The last time IU won five consecutive matches was 2012, with the fifth win earning IU a national championship.
