For the fourth-consecutive game to begin the season No. 2 IU men's soccer, the full 90 minutes of regulation time Sunday couldn’t decide on a winner. The only difference this time was that two extra overtime periods weren’t enough to stir up a goal either.
In a game that was both chippy at times and sloppy at other times, IU and Seattle University played to a 0-0 draw in the final game of the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament.
Five yellow cards and a red card shown to the Redhawks emerged as the clear match theme for the day, while also highlighting IU’s ongoing inability to take advantage of opponents’ shortcomings.
Nine total fouls were called to begin the yellow card-laden match before IU sophomore midfielder Joe Schmidt tallied the first shot of the game in the 19th minute that went wide left.
As the pace picked up on the offensive side of the ball, so too did Seattle’s aggressiveness on defense when Seattle midfielder Julian Avila-Good picked up his first yellow card after getting tangled up with an IU midfielder.
The Hoosiers couldn’t parlay the yellow card into any momentum, squandering a corner kick try and allowing the Redhawks to take possession of the ball for a nearly 10-minute stretch.
The first half ended with Seattle midfielder Burke Fahling receiving his first yellow card in the 43rd minute.
The second half introduced far more action and up-tempo play with the Hoosiers getting off six shots but not being able to find the back of the net either time. For the game, IU totaled eight shots with only one shot on goal.
Three more yellow cards on Seattle in the second half gifted IU multiple opportunities to seize control of the match, none of which were capitalized upon.
Though no one on IU played a noteworthy game, IU senior goalkeeper Sean Caulfield came up clutch with big saves on three occasions, two coming in the fourth and final overtime period.
A tapered, back-and-forth game ensued the rest of the way with neither team being able to set up quality looks in front of the net, giving way to a 0-0 tie.
The abundance of overtime games for a young Hoosiers team will bode well for them in the long term, but with the season still being early and with teams still jockeying for position within the Top 25 rankings, IU will have plenty of opportunities to justify the high current ranking.
A clash with the No. 11 ranked University of Notre Dame next Tuesday at Bill Armstrong Stadium will test just how much IU has grown following a mostly sporadic start to the season.
