By Nick Jenkinson-SCINN Sports Director
The #1 Seed Indiana Hoosiers held off the #5 Maryland Terrapins 1-0 Wednesday Night in the Semifinals of the Big Ten Men’s Soccer Tournament on Jerry Yeagley Field at Bill Armstrong Stadium in Bloomington. The Hoosiers will host the Championship Game.Sunday afternoon at 3 PM on Big Ten Network against the #2 Seed Washington Huskies who beat the #3 Seed Rutgers Scarlet Knights 3-2 in a penalty kick shootout after a 1-1 draw in regulation.
The Hoosiers have won 16 Big Ten Tournaments and 12 times they have done the double winning the Regular Season and Conference Tournament in the same season. The Hoosiers will play in thier 24th Big Ten Tournament Championship.
Indiana is 15-1-3 overall and ranked #3 in the country and finished 7-1-2 in the Big Ten. Maryland is 12-5-1 overall and finished 5-4-1 in the Big Ten and will await the NCAA Selection Show on Monday Afternoon November 15, at 1 PM as the 48 Team field is announced on NCAA.com.
The game was to start at 6 PM but mother nature had other plans forcing two rescheduling’s and pushing the start to 8:15 PM. Indiana had several chances in the first half to score but Maryland Goalkeeper Laurin Mack denied all of them as the Hoosiers had a 7-3 shot advantage going into halftime as the game remained scoreless. Two minutes into the second half the Hoosiers would find the back of the net as Easton Bogard scored of an Alex Barger corner kick to give the Hoosiers a 1-0 lead.
The Hoosiers were ahead 2-0 in the 61st minute when Nolan Kinsella scored but after video review it was taken away and the game remained 1-0. Alex Barger delivered a free kick into the box and found the head of Easton Bogard who flocked it Kinsella who knocked it home, but Kinsella was called for a hand ball taking it goal off the board.
The Hoosiers kept the pressure on as they put shit Maryland 18-8 and the Hoosiers recorded their 9th shutout of the season. The Hoosiers became the second team to shit out Maryland 4-9 in Evanston on September 11. Indiana has won five games by a score 1-0 and 7-1 in games decided by one goal.
Indiana won the regular season match against Maryland and are 10-7-8 all time against the Terrapins and 4-1-2 in Big Ten Tournament Matchups. Head Coaches Todd Yeagley and Sasho Cirovski have split their meetings at 7-7-6.
The Hoosiers beat Washington 1-0.in Bloomington on September 16, Washington is the defending NCAA Champion. The Huskies and the Scarlet Knights were scoreless at halftime. Rutgers scored in the 66th minute and the Huskies equalized 11 minutes later after Zach Ramsey missed a penalty kick and scored off the rebound. Going into the fifth and final round of the penalty kick shootout Rutgers missed the shot hitting the crossbar and Washington’s Clarems Dolin scored sending the Huskies to Bloomington for the Big Ten Conference Tournament Final.