The first match between IU and Northwestern ended in a 0-0 draw. This one was headed that way too, but Sunday was different.
There had to be a winner.
After 90 minutes, neither team had scored. It looked like the game was headed for penalty kicks, but the script changed in the 92nd minute when IU sophomore Trevor Swartz’s forehead met the ball delivered by sophomore midfielder Austin Panchot and directed it into the back of the net.
IU ended Northwestern’s season with a 1-0 extra-time victory in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals Friday afternoon against Wisconsin.
“Playing them tough this year, it’s been tough scoring on them just the way they’ve played,” Swartz said. “Defensively they’re pretty good, and Panchot put in a pretty good ball and happened to put it away again.”
Swartz was the one to end it, but if it weren’t for the ball sent in by Panchot, there wouldn’t have been a goal. Panchot worked the right flank and eventually had some space to send a cross into the box to Swartz, who was waiting all alone to direct it into the right-hand corner.
Both the Hoosiers and the Wildcats created chances in the first half, but once the second half came, Northwestern started to sit back a bit more, which opened up the game for IU.
“We were getting numbers in the box, and Northwestern was getting pretty tired,” Panchot said. “We knew somewhere there was going to be an opening, and I’m glad he was able to get his head on it and finish the game up.”
The pressure of the situation could have gotten to the Hoosiers. It was a win-or-go-home and golden-goal scenario once it got to extra time. However, the experience on the team showed as the match progressed.
IU outshot Northwestern 15-6, and there was an apparent frustration from the Hoosiers. Once their breakthrough moment came, both Swartz and IU Coach Todd Yeagley said it was a relieving feeling not only to advance but to put one in against Northwestern.
“It’s been difficult,” Yeagley said. “Trevor has been phenomenal this year, I think one of the unsung heroes of this group. The minutes he’s played with getting some big goals. Today would be no different getting a huge goal for us.”
IU now gets to be the pseudohost for its next match Friday against Wisconsin in the semifinals. The game will be played at Grand Park in Westfield, Indiana. Yeagley said it was important for his team to be there being the closest team to the facility.
IU will go up against a Wisconsin squad that beat Ohio State 3-0 in the quarterfinal and whom IU drew 0-0 against Oct. 21 in Madison, Wisconsin.
“Wisconsin is one of the better teams we’ve faced,” Yeagley said. “They are upperclassmen laden with some key players, and it’s taken them a couple of years to get to this point, but they’re hungry. I love the matchup. I think it will be a great college game.”
