It hasn't been mentioned here, but there's a spring season for college soccer, which is generally 4-6 exhibition games. The Hoosiers went 3-2-1 in these games, with one loss coming against the Mexican U-20 national team and one win notched over D-II team (the others were all D-I teams). Usually, you can't take away too much from exhibition games, but I think there are a few things that we learned about the Hoosier kickers in these games.
1) Joe Tolen can still score when given a chance.
2) Luis Soffner is the starting Hoosier Goalkeeper for 2012
3) The defense will continue to be an area of concern
4) The offense, and the Hoosiers, should be pretty good next season
More below the jump
So, here's the breakdown of the games, with the shots/shots on goal totals listed (IU vs Opp):Win 3-2 v. SLU (11/6 vs 4/3)
Loss 3-5 vs. Bradley (23/11 vs 10/7)
Tie 0-0 vs. Butler (16/7 vs. 5/3)
Win 2-0 vs Lindsay Wilson (9/7 vs 3/1)
Win 5-4 v. ND (OT) (20/9 v. 11/4)
Loss 1-2 vs. Mexico (10/3 vs 16/10)
Over the spring season, the Hoosiers outshot their opponents 89 to 55, and put 43 shots on goal to their 27. The Hoosiers registered an outstanding .483 shot-on-goal percentage, although (and this is worrisome) their opponents were slightly better at .491. The Hoosiers knocked in 14 goals, their opponents 13. Of course, the first concern is to again worry that the Hoosiers will again have a good offense and poor defense, but some of these should be taken with a grain of salt. Noone grades a defense by what they do in the exhibition games. But with this area already being a concern from last season, it's hardly encouraging either.
Offensively, the individual standouts here were Joe Tolen, who knocked in four goals, including the lone tally against Mexico, which is good - one was starting to wonder whether his 2010 performance was a bit of a fluke. Maybe Zavaleta, et al, are just figuring out how to find him. AJ Corrado had 2 goals and 3 assists, and redshirt freshman Kyle Sparks came off the bench to notch 2 goals and an assist as well.
Defensively, one wonders if the poor spring numbers had something to do with freshmen Patrick Doody and Michael Soderlund getting a lot of minutes. Particularly, Soderlund had a poor spring, letting in 9 goals and recording only 3 saves (that's an incredibly poor save percentage of 25%). Soffner posted a much better save percentage of 75% (about what he did last season) with 4 goals allowed against 12 saves. Unsurprisingly, when the Hoosiers played Mexico, Soffner played every minute, letting in two goals but recording 8 saves. Here's the basic line-up that was used by coach Todd Yeagley this spring, which will present a nice template for further future discussions about where the incoming recruits and transfers fit in next season.
Forward- Eriq Zavaleta [GAA]
Forward- Nikita Kotlov [GA]
Offensive Midfielder- Harrison Petts [AA]
Wing Midfielder- Kerel Bradford
Wing Midfielder- AJ Corrado [GGAAA]
Center Midfielder- Jacob Bushue [G]
Defensive Midfielder- Caleb Konstanski [GG]
Defender- Matt McKain [A]
Defender- Jamie Vollmer
Defender- Patrick Doody
GoalKeeper- Soffner
Bench
F- Joe Tolen [GGGG]
F- Kyle Sparks [GGA]
F- Tim Wylie
M- Aris Zafieratos [G]
M- Dylan Lax
GK- Michael Soderlund