Indiana University Athletics
No. 19 Indiana Continues Homestand With Butler Wednesday Night
9/25/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 25, 2007
Indiana vs. Butler Match Notes- PDF Format
No. 19/23 INDIANA (3-3-1) vs. BUTLER (4-2-2)
Sept. 26, 2007 • 7 p.m.
Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium • Bloomington, Ind.
Series: Indiana leads, 16-1-1
Last Meeting: Indiana 4, Butler 2 (Oct. 25, 2006)
Radio: WIUX (99.1 FM)
Television: None
SETTING THE SCENE
The Hoosiers will look to break out of a three-game losing streak as it plays host to the Butler Bulldogs on Wednesday night at Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium. Including Wednesday night's game, IU will play three of its next four matches at home.
NEWS AND NOTES
• Indiana fell for the third-straight time with a 2-1 loss to the UAB Blazers on Friday night.
• UAB jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but the Hoosiers came out pressuring the UAB backs to open the first half and came through with the game-tying score at 58:23.
• Making his first career start, freshman Rich Balchan scored the goal.
• It is the first time an Indiana team has lost three straight since the 2000 season.
• Indiana has lost four straight just one time in school history- 1985. That year the Hoosiers opened with a 1-4 record.
• The Hoosiers will play three of their next four games at home. After Wednesday night Indiana will travel to Michigan on Sept. 29 to open Big Ten play. They will then play host to UIC (Oct. 3) and Michigan State (Oct. 6) in back-to-back matches.
• After suffering an ACL injury in the spring, sophomore Darren Yeagle has been cleared to participate in full-contact practices.
• 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.
• 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 action in the match.
ABOUT THE BULLDOGS
• Butler is 4-2-2 on the season after opening Horizon League play with a 4-1 win over Valparaiso on Sunday.
• Four different Bulldogs scored in the victory, led by junior forward Frank Patano's team-leading fifth goal.
• Butler is 2-0-1 in road games this year with wins at Northern Illinois and Valparaiso.
• The Bulldogs have scored 18 goals while allowing 13. In addition to multiple goals from Patano, Boris Gatzky has three goals and three assists for nine points.
• Butler holds a slim 49-38 shot advantage in the first half but has been out-shot 67-52 in the second half.
• Goalkeeper Fabian Knopfler has started all eight games, allowing 13 scored for a 1.53 goals-against average. He has one shutout to his credit, while coming up with 39 saves.
• Head coach Kelly Findley is in his second season as head coach at Butler with a career record of 11-13-4. He is assisted by Michael Rivas and David Costa.
SERIES HISTORY
• Indiana leads the all-time series, 16-1-1.
• The Hoosiers won last year's meeting by a 4-2 score on Oct. 24.
• IU's lone loss in the season came in 1995 by a 1-0 score at Armstrong Stadium.
• In last year's road victory, the Hoosiers trailed 1-0 before Noschang tied things up in the 60th minute. After Butler went ahead, 2-1, Indiana put three goals on the board in the final five minutes with scores from Josh Tudela (84:52), Darren Yeagle (87:24) and Eric Alexander (87:46).
• The 22 seconds between goals was the seventh-fastest time between goals scored in Hoosier history.
LAST TIME OUT
Despite a dominating second-half performance where it outshot the UAB Blazers by a 13-4 margin, the 10th-ranked Indiana Hoosiers lost for the third-straight game by a 2-1 score Friday night at Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium.
With the loss Indiana falls to 3-3-1 on the season. It is the first time an IU team has lost three games in a row since the 2000 team closed the regular season with three-straight losses.
UAB's (5-2-0) game-winning score came with just 1:07 remaining in regulation. With things knotted a 1-1 and overtime looming on the horizon, Dejan Jakovic put home his second goal of the night. The play began on a breakaway by Jakovic, yet his initial shot was stopped by IU goalkeeper Chay Cain. The ball rebounded right back to Jakovic who slotted the ball home past a defenseless Cain.
"On a breakaway, you kind of have to get lucky," Cain said. "The ball bounced his way and he finished his run like a forward should."
Despite finishing with a 21-9 advantage in shots and up 9-1 in corner kicks, it was UAB who took an early 1-0 lead in the 12th minute. Jakovic took the ball near the midfield mark and ran down the right sideline, burning past the IU defense to put a shot into the upper left for the lead.
The rest of the first half would play out fairly evenly with the Hoosiers holding a slight 8-5 lead in shot attempts.
Indiana came out on fire to open the second period, with Brad Ring, Andy Adlard, Lee Hagedorn, Billy Weaver and Eric Alexander all getting a shot off within the first 3:32 of the period. Alexander would lead the team with seven shots, but just one of those attempts was on goal.
The Hoosiers finally broke through with the equalizer at 58:23. Making his first career start and just his second overall appearance on the pitch, freshman Rich Balchan won a race for the ball and took his shot from about 12 yards out. With UAB goalkeeper Wes Johnson out of position, a field player tried to step in and stop the shot but could not get a boot on it before it crossed the goal line. Balchan finished the night with two shots.
Indiana continued its offensive pressure, keeping the ball in the Blazers' defensive half of the field, and it looked as if that pressure would pay off when the Hoosiers were awarded a penalty kick at 82:39 after Michael Roach was taken down in the box. Making his first start of the season, Billy Weaver lined up to take the kick but Johnson made a diving stop to his left to keep the game tied a 1-all. Johnson had five saves on the night, as did Cain for IU.
Ring had another shot attempt blocked at 88:02, but after getting just one shot off in the first 43 minutes of the second half, the Blazers strung together three attempts in the final two minutes, including the game-winner.
DUBIOUS DISTINCTION
• Indiana has lost three games in a row for just the third time since becoming a varsity sport in 1973.
• The only other times IU has lost three in a row in a single season are 1985 (four in a row) and 2000 (three in a row).
• Indiana went through a three-game stretch without a victory last year (0-2-1), as well as 2005 (0-1-2).
• The last time IU lost three in a row in 2000, the team went on to advance to the NCAA College Cup and posted a 16-7 overall record.
SCORING WOES
• It is hard to win games when you aren't putting the ball in the back of the net and the Hoosiers are struggling to do just that, scoring just nine goals in seven games for an average of just 1.25 goals per game.
• Indiana has put up 102 shots, but just 39 of those have been on-goal (38 percent).
QUITE A DEBUT
• It was a whirlwind debut for freshman midfielder Rich Balchan against UAB on Sept. 21.
• Getting his first career starting nod, Balchan made his presence known with his first career goal.
• Balchan's score in the 59th minute tied the game at 1-all.
• He is one of two freshmen to score a goal this season, joining Michael Roach.
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 75 matches at IU, Freitag has a career record of 50-14-11.
BIG TEN ON THE HORIZON
• This week marks the start of Big Ten play for the Hoosiers as they travel to No. 12 Michigan on Saturday.
• The Wolverines enter the week with a 7-0-1 record. Their perfect mark was blemished on Sunday with a 2-2 tie with Wisconsin.
• Michigan will play Oakland on Wednesday before meeting up with IU.
• Indiana has won three-straight Big Ten matches, including last year's Big Ten Tournament, and is 6-1-2 in its last nine league games.
