The No. 2-seeded Hoosiers were attempting their seventh corner kick of the afternoon in the 16th minute.
Senior midfielder Trevor Swartz sent the cross in from the left corner as Gutman waited inside the box. As the ball curved in, Gutman ran toward the goal, following the balls’ movements.
He then took a few steps to gather himself and jumped in the air to heads the ball. The ball then deflected off the head of a Connecticut defender to find the back of the net.
The goal was the first of four as IU blanked UConn 4-0 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“I think from there on we were just flowing and moving really well,” Gutman said. “We’re the type of team that once we start creating a few good few chances, we just don’t stop. Everything starts to click, guys are even sharper on the ball and it gets better and better.”
Just a little more than three minutes after the Gutman goal, sophomore midfielder Griffin Dorsey found the back of the net for IU again.
Senior defender Rece Buckmaster passed the ball to senior midfielder Cory Thomas as he was streaking toward the box. Dorsey slowed himself down when Thomas received the ball, then Thomas made a short touch pass to Dorsey.
Dorsey finished things from there as he fired the shot from four yards out on the right side to give IU the 2-0 lead.
“I thought today we were really sharp and dangerous in the final third,” IU Coach Todd Yeagley said. “We scored some great goals and didn’t allow UConn, who’s a really good attacking team, to really get into any rhythm.”
Despite holding a 13-1 shot and 8-0 corner kicks advantage at halftime, the Hoosiers didn’t let up after seeing UConn come back from 2-0 in its last against Rhode Island, and eventually winning 4-3 to set up the match today.
Any hope that the Huskies had was quickly squandered during a two-minute span in the second half.
In the 58th minute, Swartz sent the cross in from the right corner and it found the head of Gutman like it did on the first goal. But, as the ball stayed in the air, senior defender Timmy Mehl used his right foot to poke the ball in to make it a 3-0 lead.
The final goal of the day for IU came after senior midfielder Austin Panchot sent a cross toward sophomore midfielder Spencer Glass on the left side of the field. Glass then gathered himself a sent a shot toward the right side of the net to extend the lead.
In a rematch of an IU win from earlier in the season, it wasn’t nearly as close this time around. The Hoosiers now await on the winner of the Denver and Air Force match later today to see who they’ll play in the third round.
“I think just coming out with a team as good as UConn and having them earlier in the season where they held us to just 1-0, coming out in the first round of the tournament and being able to have that kind of performance through and through,” Glass said. “It just helps us show how good we are and have good momentum for the next game.”
