Senior midfielder Francesco Moore clenched his fists and raised both his arms, screaming at the top of his lungs.
Moore was the first IU player to head over to the fence across the gravel path that separated the bench from the fans. While surrounded by other IU players and fans, Moore wrapped both of his arms around his parents at the same time with a never-ending smile on his face.
His smile reflected the mood of everyone else on the field as IU defeated No. 7-seeded Notre Dame, 1-0, officially punching their ticket to the College Cup for the second season in a row.
What made this win possible was the substitution that IU Coach Todd Yeagley made in the 60th minute.
He inserted Superman into the match.
Yeagley said he told Moore before the game to put on his cape. After suffering an undisclosed lower body injury against Air Force in the prior round, the status of Moore’s availability was up in the air. Yeagley decided that he’d rather have Moore subbed in toward the end of the game rather than him risking further injury at the start.
“His presence immediately on the field just gave everybody confidence,” Yeagley said.
Before Moore entered the game, IU struggled at moments in the match to take advantage of the Notre Dame defense. Less than four minutes after Moore stepped onto field, the Hoosiers finally broke through.
In the 64th minute, Moore intercepted the pass between a pair of Notre Dame players with his left foot. Moore passed it to senior midfielder Trevor Swartz who then sent the ball to sophomore midfielder Spencer Glass, who played the role of decoy as he let the ball roll through his legs to find a streaking senior defender Andrew Gutman.
Gutman saw the ball in front of him with the Notre Dame defender approaching him and accelerated to blow by him and make his move into the box. As the defender tried to make a sliding tackle, Gutman was too quick and sent a cross toward the opposite side.
Senior midfielder Austin Panchot managed to slip in between a pair of defenders while everyone was focused on Gutman’s buildup. That left him wide open to receive the pass from Gutman and he easily scored the header with the goalkeeper on the left side of the goal.
“We knew that if we played smart enough, we could find a goal like we did,” Panchot said.
The feeling on the IU sideline was that only one goal was going to be enough to win the match due to how the defense has played all year, and it was thanks to the heroics of sophomore goalkeeper Trey Muse earlier in the first half.
As the red confetti rained down on the team in celebration, Gutman’s mindset immediately changed without hesitation from the win to the matchup looming ahead with Big Ten rival Maryland in the semifinals.
“We’ve gotta win it,” Gutman said. “This was great getting to the College Cup again, but we really haven’t done anything yet. This is our last chance at it and we gotta win it. We’re going to do everything we can to win it this year and make up for what happened last year.”
