Hoosiers head to Columbus seeking outright B1G title

So far, so good for Indiana men’s soccer as they head down the home stretch of the regular season.

Since defeating one of the best teams in the Big Ten, Michigan, on the road, the No. 2 Hoosiers (13-2, 6-0 B1G) have rattled off three more wins.

On October 12 the Hoosiers skated past Maryland by the skin of their teeth. It took some late game heroics from star defender Andrew Gutman to grab a 2-1 win over the Terps. Gutman scored both goals, putting the winner in the back of the net in the 90th minute off a cross.

On October 16 IU hosted in-state rival Butler. The Bulldogs are having a bit of a down year and it showed, the Hoosiers didn’t face much of a challenge as Justin Rennicks, Timmy Mehl, and Spencer Glass each bagged a goal for a 3-0 win.

Last Friday Todd Yeagley’s squad traveled to rutger. They won. Now we’re all caught up.

Tonight the Hoosiers will be on the road again, this time in Columbus to take on Ohio State with some high stakes. If IU comes away with even one point they’ll clinch the Big Ten title outright. If not they’ll still have one more match to do so, but it’ll be against a much tougher opponent in No. 12 Michigan State.

It’s been a rough first season for the Buckeyes under former IU assistant coach Brian Maisonneuve as they’ve won one (1) game to date, coming into this matchup with a 1-12-2 record. That single win came in August against Hofstra and OSU most recently got a result just over a month ago when they played Northwestern to a draw.

If the Buckeyes want to put up any kind of fight against IU they’re gonna have to...uh...score goals. Seems like common sense, but it’s not something OSU does very often. On the season they’ve scored seven goals—total. That’s almost a goal every other game on average and they haven’t scored in their last two games so maybe they’re due to find the back of the net, but it doesn’t seem very likely against IU’s tough defense.

Ohio State hasn’t done so well on the defensive end either. They’ve allowed 30 goals in their 15 games and goalkeeper Parker Siegfried has the lower save percentage in the conference with a .620 mark.

One player to watch for the Buckeyes will be Devyn Etling. The freshman forward is the only OSU player to score multiple goals this season with three total. Prior to joining the Buckeyes he was a part of the Columbus Crew Academy, where he was named their 2016 Player of the Year and ranked as the No. 30 overall prospect by College Soccer News. He’s also spent time with the U.S. Youth National Team

If you want to watch, you can on BTN Plus. If you don’t have BTN Plus and you want to stare at a screen filled with stats instead like some kind of Football Manager addict then you can follow the live stats here.