One week ago, Indiana men’s soccer seemed relieved to return home with a point after drawing Michigan on the road. In a match in which the Hoosiers clawed back from two separate leads, the result was far from deflating.
On Sunday against Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey, Indiana scored two go-ahead goals, and conceded two equalizers en route to a 2-2 draw. Moving their conference record to 1-1-3, the Hoosiers now sit in fourth place in the Big Ten with just three conference battles remaining.
Fresh off a victory over the University of Notre Dame, the Hoosiers carried their momentum into the early stages of Sunday’s match. In just the third minute, after senior defender Nyk Sessock sent a long throw into Rutgers’ box, sophomore forward Tommy Mihalic was perfectly positioned to fire a shot into the bottom corner.
Head coach Todd Yeagley has noted the team’s tendency to concede goals against the flow, and that would be the case for the pair of Rutgers goals. The first came just five minutes after Mihalic opened the scoring.
After a Hoosier turnover in their defensive third, the Scarlet Knights gained possession at the top of the area. A quick couple of passes later, and senior forward MD Meyers was all alone to sneak a shot past Indiana redshirt junior goalkeeper Bryant Pratt.
[Related: Munie, Pratt secure Indiana men’s soccer’s 1-0 win over Notre Dame after injury absences]
With a continued rapid pace of play on the attack, the Hoosiers notched their second goal merely seven minutes after Rutgers drew level.
Redshirt senior defender Daniel Munie, who has started to regain form after being sidelined for four matches with a hamstring injury, flew around the pitch from the first kick of the match. In the 15th minute, he dispossessed a Rutgers midfielder and linked with sophomore forward Sam Sarver for a quick combination play. Munie’s impressive individual run was capped off by taking a slight, subtle dribble around freshman goalkeeper Ciaran Dalton and tapping the ball into the net.
Munie, whose athleticism was on display in his streak down the pitch, has now scored two goals in his past three matches. Still, about 15 minutes later, Rutgers came storming back.
The Scarlet Knights had missed a few quality chances, and a breakthrough was imminent. From the top of the Hoosiers’ box, junior midfielder Jason Bouregy weaved a through ball to graduate student midfielder Pablo Avila, who placed a clinical finish into the bottom right corner.
However, the attacking outburst that resulted in two goals for each side in the first thirty minutes would soon fizzle out. In the second half, the match turned into more of a chess match with methodical approaches to breaking down the opposing backlines.
The Hoosiers dominated the period, controlling possession in long spurts and tallying six shots. Nonetheless, even with the Rutgers backline on its heels for multiple sequences, Indiana could not find the game-winning goal.
While picking up a point on the road is a positive result, especially against a quality side, Yeagley has repeatedly said draws have the same feeling of a loss. With its third draw in conference play through five matches, Indiana will need to start picking up wins to move up the table in order to secure homefield advantage for the Big Ten Tournament.
Their next opportunity to do so will come Friday, Oct. 14 when the Hoosiers host Penn State at 6:30 p.m. at Bill Armstrong Stadium. The match will be broadcast on Big Ten Network.
