Senior midfielder Frankie Moore never let up for a single moment during IU's first Big Ten Tournament game Sunday.
On the right side of the box, Moore received the ball and was immediately met by a pair of Northwestern defenders. He tried to send in a cross but it deflected off the defender that was right in front of him. Moore then pushed his way through the defenders to secure the rebound.
The Northwestern defender slipped up while trying to clear the ball. That allowed Moore to set his feet and send in a perfect cross toward sophomore midfielder Spencer Glass.
Glass came running toward the goal and put his head on the ball from point-blank range to score the golden goal for the Hoosiers.
Behind that goal from Glass, No. 2 IU defeated Northwestern 2-1 in overtime to pick up the win in the Big Ten Tournament quarterfinals.
“I was calling for it, so once I saw it in the air I was happy for it,” Glass said. “It was a perfect ball. It was almost hard to miss. It wasn’t too much to do there instead of just making contact. He put it on a platter.”
The Hoosiers had 25 shots in regulation, but it took 23 of them before they could find their first goal of the day.
Glass sent in a cross over toward the opposite side of the box, but it deflected off the left post. Senior midfielder Rece Buckmaster then made a sliding effort to put his left foot on the ball and send it into the far post from three yards out.
IU finally had the difference maker and held Northwestern to only a single shot by that 80th minute.
“We knew something was going to come eventually so we had to keep going and going,” Buckmaster said. “Something was eventually going to come after all those shots we had because we had good chances in the first half then just kept on coming in the second half. So, we just knew something was going to come and it finally did.”
It looked like IU would eventually come away with the clean sheet but Northwestern came up with an almost impossible equalizer in the 88th minute.
The Wildcats sent the ball to the box from almost the middle of the field. The ball then was headed up into the air and bounced on the ground. Junior midfielder Matt Moderwell took his left foot and swung it around his body to fire a rocket type of shot toward the goal.
Moderwell flicked it off the back post over the outreaching hands of sophomore goalkeeper Trey Muse to find the late score.
“The kid hit a world-class finish and you're kind of just shaking your head,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “The guys came in and talked about it and said we have 20 minutes. We had plenty of time based on the chances that we’d created to score another goal. They were really confident. I know how cruel this sport can be.”
Thanks to the golden goal from Glass, IU is now headed to Westfield, Indiana, to take on Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals where if IU wins, it will be in the championship game. This victory pushed IU's win streak to seven games.
