On a sunny Labor Day afternoon, the Indiana Hoosiers were looking to pick up their 850th program win and end their non-conference schedule with a win over the University of Denver.
Head Coach Todd Yeagley kept the starting 11 mostly the same despite Collins Oduro getting his first start of the season. Oduro, who had missed the first two games of the season, gave Yeagley’s front line an extra spark in the game tonight.
“He’s so good at splitting, and he’s so quick and electric…and I thought he got in some attacking rhythm tonight…” Head Coach Todd Yeagley said postgame. Indiana kept constant pressure on the Pioneers crossing balls with ease but the Pioneers were keeping the box protected.
It was a first half spent on the Pioneers half of the field but it took 29 minutes and nine shots before Wes Carnevale was the one to break through and put a shot that pinballed through the defense into the back of the net. Carnevale who scored his first goal of the season on Friday continued to be the one with the hot hand. Nick McHenry, the captain of the defense was tallied with the assist. The game didn’t slow down however, the Pioneers wasted no time to counter with their own attack. Keegan Kelly put Denver’s first shot of the match on net which saw a diving save from goalkeeper Michael Mroz, keeping Indiana’s lead at one. In a last ditch effort in the 42nd minute of the game, the Hoosiers attack led to a Nolan Kinsella boot that went right over Denver goalkeeper Alex Hohl putting the crowd on their feet for a few seconds before it was called back due to offsides. Indiana went into the half up 1-0.
The second half was a similar story for Indiana. They kept the pressure on the Pioneers controlling the ball on Denver’s half of the field for the first ten minutes of play. In the 56th minute Freshman Michael Adu-Gyamfi picked the ball off his chest, set it just inside the box and fired a shot over the keeper for his first career collegiate goal. Adu-Gyamfi would go on to play just 21 minutes in the game before being subbed out by Oliver Moller-Jensen.
That momentum was switched some time later when in the 69th minute Denver’s Will King notched a shot just past the outstretched arm of Michael Mroz putting the Pioneers within one. They continued to put on pressure following the goal and Mroz was forced to make another diving save but the Hoosiers kept the damage to just one goal.
Indiana got back on the attack quickly and with Oduro coming back into the game, the Hoosiers got a spark. In the 79th minute of the game Oduro crossed the ball to the middle just in the right spot for Moller-Jensen to soar into the air and in a near bicycle kick formation, smoked a shot into the mesh for the Hoosier’s third goal. Moller-Jensen secured his fifth goal of the season putting the dagger in the Pioneers and securing Indiana a win.
Indiana, now 5-0-1, will travel to Ann Arbor, Michigan to face off against the Wolverines in the first game of Big Ten play.
