No. 10 Indiana Plays Host To UAB Friday Night

The Hoosiers are 1-0-1 at Armstrong Stadium this season.

9/19/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer

Sept. 19, 2007

SETTING THE SCENE

After four-straight games away from home, the Hoosiers return to the friendly confines of Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium this Friday to play host to the UAB Blazers. Indiana is looking to snap a two-game losing streak.

NEWS AND NOTES

 The Hoosiers are coming off a pair of losses at the Saint Louis/Nike Soccer Classic last weekend.

 Indiana opened with a 2-1 loss to No. 16 Creighton. Eric Alexander scored the lone goal for IU with a penalty kick in the 75th minute.

 The Hoosiers were out-shot 17-7 in the match and trailed 2-0 before Alexander's goal put them on the board.

 The tournament wrapped up with a 2-1 loss to the host No. 24 Billikens on Saturday.

 Brad Ring put the Hoosiers on top with a beautiful shot from 20-yards out at 25:55, but SLU answered with goals from Brian Grazier and Kyle Patterson.

 Despite allowing four goals, goalkeeper Chay Cain had a solid tournament, tallying five saves in each match.

 Ring and Greg Stevning were named to the all-tournament team.

 Last year Indiana lost back-to-back matches to Notre Dame and SMU before going on to win eight of their next 10.

 After four straight games on the road, the Hoosiers will play four of their next five at home. Their only trip away is a match at Michigan on Sept. 29.

 Brad Ring was named TopDrawerSoccer Player of the Week and was named to the College Soccer News Team of the Week on Sept. 10.

 The Hoosiers were 1-0 winners over No. 1 UCLA in front of a record crowd of 7,420 at the adidas/IU Credit Union Classic on Sept. 2.

 With the win, Indiana is 2-0 in its last two meetings with No. 1 ranked teams at Armstrong Stadium. In 2005, IU defeated No. 1 Akron, 1-0 in overtime.

 Kevin Noschang was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week on Sept. 3.

 Freshmen Andy Adlard and Michael Roach have appeared in every match this season.

 Adlard has started every game so far in his young career.

 Roach made his first career start at Saint Louis on Sept. 15, along with junior Nick Sutter. Freshman Rich Balchan also saw his first career actoin in the match.

ABOUT THE BLAZERS

 UAB is 4-2-0 on the season after wins over Mercer (1-0, OT) and Birmingham Southern (3-0) to capture the UAB Classic championship.

 After dropping their first two matches, UAB has won four straight.

 They have not allowed a goal during that four-game span.

 Junior Frank Brown scord the game-winning goal on Sunday against Mercer and leads the team in scoring with 10 points (four goals, two assists).

 Junior Dejan Jakovic has three goals, along with two each from junior Derek Rios and freshman Anthony King.

 Goalkeeper Wes Johnson has played all but 45 minutes this season and has allowed just four goals for a 0.72 goals-against average.

 The Blazers have nearly doubled-up their opponents on shot attempts, taking 94 compared to just 48 on the other side.

 It is a homecoming of sorts for UAB head coach Mike Getman and assistant coach Ernie Yarborough. Getman played two seasons at Indiana (1978, `81) and also spent three years as an assistant (1984-86).

 Yarborough was a four-year letterwinner, playing 20 matches in goal for the Hoosiers.

SERIES HISTORY

 Indiana leads the all-time series, 1-0-2.

 The Hoosiers won last year's meeting by a 2-1 score on Aug. 27.

 The two matches prior both ended in ties. The teams played to a 0-0 tie at Armstrong Stadium in 2003, and a 1-1 tie in 1996.

 Last year's 2-1 win came thanks to a goal from Julian Dieterle in the 89th minute. Brian Ackley scored the first goal for IU just 26 seconds into the match.

LAST TIME OUT

No. 2 Indiana (3-2-1) dropped its second-straight contest, giving up a pair of unanswered goals to No. 24 Saint Louis (2-1-2) in a 2-1 loss in the final game of the Saint Louis/Nike Soccer Classic at Robert R. Hermann Stadium.

The Hoosiers had their chances, putting up 15 shots with six of those looks on-goal, but in the end could not finish.

"I am pleased with the overall effort of the team, but costly mistakes hurt us," said head coach Mike Freitag. "You can't do that against a quality opponent like Saint Louis."

It was a perfect fall evening in St. Louis with clear skies and crisp temperatures. The game started out in IU's favor as Michael Roach had a beat on a nifty through-ball from Brad Ring seven minutes in, but SLU `keeper Ross Kaufman smothered the ball. Roach took his second shot of the night as Andy Adlard fed him a perfect pass from just atop the midfield circle but Kaufman again had it covered.

Indiana looked like the more dangerous team early on, but Saint Louis had two goal-scoring opportunites in a matter of seconds in the 17th minute. Dado Hamzagic hit one off the right post, and Kyle Patterson sent an open rebound shot wide. A minute later goalkeeper Chay Cain was again put to the test, diving to his right to stop a shot from Hamzagic.

Despite the near misses from the Billikens, it was the Hoosiers who were on the scoreboard first. Brad Ring hit a laser shot from about 20 yards out, taking the ball from a Saint Louis defender Brian Grazier near midfield and sending his shot past Kaufman for a 1-0 IU lead at 25:55.

Saint Louis continued to apply pressure to the Hoosiers' back line after the goal, including a 1-on-1 shot from Kyle Hayes that Cain got a hand on and sent back into the field of play.

The Billikens put back the equalizer at 41:50 after it looked like Cain had made the save. Dado Hamzagic sent a ball into the goal mouth that Cain seemed to cover, but the ball squirted out to the waiting Grazier who put it home uncontested.

Cain finished the game with five saves.

A misplayed ball by the Hoosiers led to Saint Louis' second goal for a 2-1 lead at 59:01. Indiana completely missed the ball while trying to clear it out in front of the net. That allowed Patterson to pounce on it and send the ball into the lower right for the Billikens.

Going down a goal seemed to put life back into the Hoosiers' attack. It looked like Noschang had the game tied once again with a shot from 15 yards out that went across the goal and was heading to the back of the net until it just nicked the right post and went back into the field of play.

Indiana continued to put itself in good positions, but a shot from Lee Hagedorn was saved by Kaufman and Adlard sent an open shot wide. At just under five minutes remaining, Kaufman was forced to make a brilliant save on a shot from Charley Traylor, leaping to his right and sending the ball over the crossbar.

The Hoosiers were without the services of starting defender Ofori Sarkodie, who was serving a one-match suspension after receiving a red card in Thursday night's loss to Creighton. Roach, a St. Louis native, and junior Nick Sutter both earned their first career starts in the match. Also making his first-ever appearance for IU was freshman Rich Balchan.

A HALF CENTURY IN THREE YEARS

 With the win over Rhode Island on Sept. 9, head coach Mike Freitag recorded his 50th career victory at the helm of the Indiana program.

 After 74 matches at IU, Freitag has a career record of 50-13-11.

RING GAINS NATIONAL ACCLAIM

 Several national outlets have taken notice of junior midfielder Brad Ring's solid work on the ball.

 Ring was named the Top Drawer Soccer Player of the Week on Sept. 10 after an outstanding performance in a pair of IU wins at the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament.

 College Soccer News also took notice, naming Ring to its Team of the Week.

 Ring was named to the Mike Berticelli All-Tournament Team and was named the tournament's Defensive MVP.

SCORING OUTBURST

 After tallying just three goals over their first three games, the Hoosiers offense woke up against Rhode Island on Sept. 9, putting away two goals in a span of seven minutes and finishing with a 3-1 win.

 Trailing 1-0, Eric Alexander got the scoring started with his first goal of the year. Kevin Noschang added to his team-leading goal total with his third of 2007 just seven minutes later to give IU a 2-1 lead it would not relinquish.

 Freshman Michael Roach got in on the scoring act with his first collegiate goal, assisted by another freshman, Andy Adlard, and redshirt freshman Neil Wilmarth.

 The three goals was the most scored by IU since a 4-2 win over Butler on Oct. 24, 2006.

RANKING THE HOOSIERS

 The NSCAA coaches poll puts the Hoosiers at No. 10 this week, down eight spots.

 Indiana dropped 12 spots to No. 15 in this week's Soccer America poll after a pair of losses at the Saint Louis/Nike Soccer Classic.

 Soccer Times ranks IU 12th.

 College Soccer News dropped the Hoosiers from No. 2 to No. 12.

CAIN IS ABLE

 Junior goalkeeper Chay Cain has had a solid season between the pipes for the Hoosiers so far.

 In nearly 560 minutes of play, Cain has tallied 30 saves and allowed just six goals for a 0.96 GAA.

 What does not show up on the box scores are several spectacular saves that Cain has come up with to keep opponents at bay.

 Cain made a diving stop to his right that kept a sure-fire goal from going in against Saint Louis, one of five saves on the night for Cain.

 He also recorded five saves against Creighton on Sept. 13 and leads the Big Ten with an average of 5.00 saves per game.

 After allowing just one goal in a pair of wins over Northern Illinois and Rhode Island, Cain was named Most Outstanding Goalkeeper at the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament.

THAT WAS QUICK

 With three goals to his credit over the first six games of the season, junior forward Kevin Noschang has already topped his season goal marks of 2005 and 2006.

 Noschang is just one score away from matching his career total of four.