Through the first 75 minutes of IU's match with Rutgers on Friday, the Hoosiers set a new season high with 23 shots.
None of those 23 resulted in a goal.
It wasn’t until the last shot of the game, shot 26, that IU finally broke through.
Senior defender Andrew Gutman got the ball along the side of the box with just over six minutes to play. With a defender pushing him, Gutman dribbled toward the end line. Just as the ball was about to go out of bounds, Gutman flicked it backward to wide open senior midfielder Trevor Swartz.
Swartz kicked the ball on his first touch, sending a curling shot along the front of the goal and finding the top right corner of the net.
The first 25 shots were in the past. The 26th shot was the only one that mattered.
Swartz’s first goal of the 2018 season lifted No. 2 IU to a 1-0 victory over Rutgers. With the win, IU improved to 13-2 overall and 6-0 in the Big Ten. In addition, the win pushed the Hoosiers unbeaten streak in the Big Ten to 34 straight games.
IU had multiple instances where a player would get a shot on goal, and the rebound would fall to a player and the ensuing shot would go wide. IU had three shots in the 24th minute as the ball bounced around in the box.
The Hoosiers' first shot of the game came on a Timmy Mehl header off of a Swartz corner kick. Just seconds later, sophomore Justin Rennicks had a breakaway opportunity but missed.
It was a stretch that summarized the first 83 minutes of the game for the Hoosiers. IU got the ball out wide, and played crosses into the box. The Hoosiers used many of these types of plays to set up corner kicks, where they had many chances but never found the back of the net.
Gutman had a low shot early in the game that required Rutgers goalkeeper Rafael Pereira to make a save.
In the 39th minute, Gutman had another counter-attack chance, and while his slow-rolling shot beat Pereira, it was too tight of an angle and Gutman was unable to tuck it inside the post.
Pereira had a strong performance for Rutgers, saving nine shots and keeping his Scarlet Knights in the game.
With Gutman, Rennicks and Dorsey leading the charge on offense, it was all the more ironic for the Hoosiers leader in assists to score the game-winning goal.
Trevor Swartz came into the game with 10 assists on the season. On both free kicks and corner kicks, he had set up guys like Gutman to put the ball in the back of the net.
On this night, it was the opposite.
Gutman was the one who recorded the assist, and it was Swartz who scored the goal.
If IU wins one of its final two games, it will have a share of the Big Ten championship.
