Men’s Soccer

Nico Perrino

Alston, a unanimous All-Big Ten defender, saw his unit give up a nightmarish three goals in the final 12 minutes of IU's Elite 8 loss to St. John's.

After advancing the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament with wins over St. Louis (2-0) and Michigan (3-0) the Indiana University Mens soccer team’s season came to an end last Saturday December 6th with a devastating loss to 3rd overall seed St. Johns.  The 6th overall seed Hoosiers were leading the Red Storm 2-0 going into the 81st minute when the Red Storm scored 2 unanswered goals in the last 8 minutes to take the game into overtime.  St. John scored in the 4th minute of overtime on a penalty kick to advance to the final four and beat the Hoosiers 3-2.  The Hoosiers had an outstanding week of practice prior to traveling to St. Johns, but were unable to hang on for the win.

The loss to St. Johns Saturday ended what has been a very up and down season for the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers ended the season 14-7-3 after starting off slow with ties to South Florida and Akron. The team hit stride midseason however, notching key wins against Notre Dame (3-1) and UCLA (3-0).  The Hoosiers did not lose to a ranked team until the Big Ten Finals when they lost to Michigan State.  All of the Hoosiers losses came to teams that were unranked at the time of the match, including a 4-0 loss to Dartmouth which many say was the their most devastating loss of the regular season.

This is the first class of 4-year seniors to never play in the Final Four during their IU soccer careers, although this year’s quarterfinals team did advance the furthest in the tournament since the team’s 2004 NCAA National Championship.
Key Players in 2008:

• Midfielder Brad Ring (senior) was the team captain and also a Hermann Trophy semi-finalist. The Hermann Trophy is the highest award that can be awarded to a single player in Collegiate Soccer: Much like the Heisman trophy in Football.

• Left Defender Kevin Alston (Junior) was a unanimous All-Big Ten selection, and a rock on the IU defense this year.

• Center Midfielder Andy Adlard (Sophomore) led the team in scoring with 7 goals, 5 of them game winning. He also led the team in assists with 5.

• Forward Will Bruin (Freshman) was awarded Big-Ten Freshman of the year after scoring 6 goals, 3 game winning. Bruin was second to Adlard in scoring for the year.

• Goalkeeper Chay Cain was an Academic All-American and was the IU Scholar-Athlete of the Month for November.

Key Losses going into the 2009 season:

• Brad Ring (Midfielder), Kevin Noschang (starting forward), John Mellencamp (Midfielder), and Chay Cain (goalkeeper).

(John Mellencamp’s uncle is the singer songwriter by the same name who reached the peak of his fame in the 80’s and 90’s)

Key Returners:

The Hoosiers are returning leading scorers Bruin and Adlard next year, and being only a Freshman and Sophomore respectively look for many more years of productivity from these two outstanding players.

(Note: IU’s 2009 freshman recruiting class has yet to be announced.)

Nico Perrino is a freshman at Indiana University. He can be reached at nperrino@indiana.edu