Rutgers men's soccer falls to Indiana in regular season finale
The Rutgers men's soccer team faced off against Indiana in Bloomington, Indiana, on Sunday. The Scarlet Knights (5-7-3, 3-4-1) suffered a 4-1 defeat to the Hoosiers (9-4-4, 3-2-2) in their final game of the regular season.
Indiana started the game on the front foot with shots from Joey Maher and Karsen Henderlong, but sophomore goalkeeper Ciaran Dalton kept their efforts out.
The Hoosiers finally broke through in the 5th minute, as Maher's pass found Hugo Bacharach, who shot the ball in the top right corner of the net to give Indiana a 1-0 lead.
Collins Oduro extended the Hoosiers' lead to 2 goals in the 23rd minute. Maouloune Goumballe played a pass to Oduro, who placed his right-footed shot past Dalton and into the bottom left corner of the net for the score.
Rutgers cut its deficit to 1 goal in the last minute of the first half when junior midfielder Curt Calov's left-footed shot sailed past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper JT Harms and into the top right corner of the net.
Indiana went into halftime with a 2-1 lead, but the Knights had swung some momentum their way with the late goal.
The Hoosiers started the second half similarly to the first, controlling the ball and having the majority of the scoring opportunities. Samuel Sarver and Bacharach forced Dalton into more saves 3 minutes into the second half.
Indiana continued applying attacking pressure as Oduro nearly scored his second goal of the match when his shot rattled off the crossbar in the 52nd minute.
After the 52nd minute, the tempo of the game slowed down as the Hoosiers began playing more defensively to preserve their lead. Rutgers continued pushing for the equalizer, but it could not break down Indiana's strong backline.
The Hoosiers went on to put the game out of reach with 2 goals in the final 10 minutes of the match. Patrick McDonald and Sarver scored the goals as Indiana ultimately pulled away from the Knights.
The Hoosiers finished the game with a 19-7 lead in shots, a 15-4 lead in shots on goal and a 6-4 lead in corner kicks.
Dalton recorded eight saves for Rutgers and conceded 4 goals.
The Knights lacked an attacking spark and struggled to get the ball to their attackers.
Rutgers will now travel to take on Penn State in the quarterfinals of the Big Ten Tournament on Friday.
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