Directly following Indiana men’s soccer’s 3-2 loss to No. 1 Clemson University last Friday Aug. 26, head coach Todd Yeagley spoke glowingly of his squad’s performance. On Tuesday night at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington, however, there was a distinct sense of frustration that ensued the Hoosiers’ 3-3 draw to the University of Portland Pilots. The draw snapped a nine-game home winning streak for the Hoosiers.
Like in the match against the Tigers, the Hoosiers came out firing against the Pilots. In just the fifth minute, senior defender Nyk Sessock released a mammoth throw-in into the box to the right foot of redshirt junior midfielder Ben Yeagley, who fired a first touch volley into the top right-hand corner.
After the Pilots quickly equalized off of a header from sophomore midfielder Brandon Cambridge in the seventh minute, the Hoosiers took their offense into another gear.
Senior forward Maouloune Goumballe was fouled in the box and sophomore forward Tommy Mihalic converted from the penalty spot to give the team a 2-1 lead. Then a header into the right corner from senior Ryan Wittenbrink gave the Hoosiers a two-goal advantage.
Offensively, Yeagley said he was pleased with the way the attack flowed throughout the match.
“We created a heck of a lot of chances, and I thought we grew in the game offensively,” Yeagley said post-match. “We played much smarter as the game went on and found space, which was wide.”
Goumballe had his best performance in his career with the Hoosiers, Yeagley said. Despite not scoring, he created a plethora of quality chances for himself and others, and perhaps most importantly, held up play in the middle of the field to allow wingers to make runs on the outside.
Though the offensive firepower returned to Bloomington in full force, the defensive lapses plaguing the Hoosiers last week were all too prevalent Tuesday night. On the Pilots’ second goal, the Hoosiers were quickly dispossessed in their own half, and Portland sophomore forward Jacob Babalai found the back of the net once again before halftime.
[Related: 3 things to watch for in No. 13 Indiana men’s soccer’s home opener against Portland]
With a new goalkeeper – redshirt senior Bryant Pratt – starting in net on Tuesday, Yeagley was hopeful the defense could get back to its ordinary dominance, but the Hoosiers conceded three goals for the second match in a row. Despite this, Yeagley said he took solace in the fact that the mistakes are correctable.
“We had the game in hand, and in the second half they had maybe two or three possessions in our half,” Yeagley said. “It’s all correctable, box defending, and simple things we just didn’t solve, and all three goals were scored inside the six (yard-box).”
The physicality and intensity the Pilots put forth played a major role in slowing down the Hoosiers' pace of play. With 32 fouls and seven yellow cards, the Pilots did everything in their power to frustrate the Hoosiers, but Yeagley said his players were prepared for that play style and maintained their composure.
“It’s a lot of fouls, and we had five,” Yeagley said. “It killed flow, and teams play like that, and you deal with it, but I don’t think our guys got frustrated.”
The Hoosiers’ next chance to get into the win column will be against the University of Notre Dame at 8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 3 at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington.
