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Oct. 8, 2016
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The Penn State men's soccer team was blanked by the No. 6 Indiana University Hoosier Saturday, Oct. 8 at Bill Armstrong Stadium in a Big Ten Conference road match.
With the loss, the Nittany Lions fall to 4-6-1 overall on the season and 2-3-0 in the Big Ten Conference, while Indiana improves to 7-1-4 overall on the season and 2-0-3 in conference play.
The Hoosiers outshot the Blue and White 16-12 in the match while both keepers made four saves on the night and both squads notched one team save.
Sophomore Dayonn Harris (Ontario, Canada) paced Penn State with two shots on net, while Pierre Reedy (Kutztown, Pa.), Robby Sagel (Las Vegas, Nev.) and Aymar Sigue (St. Albert, Alberta) all had one shot on goal for the Nittany Lions. Redshirt-junior Evan Finney (San Francisco, Calif.) made four saves in goal and gave up one goal, playing a complete 90 minutes for the Blue and White.
Cory Thomas scored the game-winner for IU with his first goal of the 2016 season off an assist from Trevor Swartz, while five other Hoosiers put shots on goal in the match. Colin Webb made four saves and did not give up a goal as the Hoosiers' starting keeper.
Indiana started off the match strong with two big shots that Finney was able to save and keep the match scoreless early. Penn State found its chances off of corner kicks, the first of which was saved by a defender after Webb knocked a Sagel header over his head.
With nine minutes remaining in the first half, Swartz led Thomas with a pass to the right side of the net. Thomas picked up the pass from two-yards outs and blasted a shot off of Finney that rose about the keeper and into the top right corner of the net to allow the Hoosiers to take a 1-0 lead. The goal marked the first time that the Nittany Lions have given up a goal in regulation time to Indiana since the 2010 season and 486 minutes of action.
The Blue and White were unable to knot the score in the closing minutes of the half, going into the locker room trailing Indiana 1-0.
The Nittany Lions tried to put pressure on the Indiana defense to start the second half and knot the score Reedy took a shot 8-yards out on the right side of the box that was knocked out at the end line. After a corner kick, Harris brought the ball up the middle of the field and took a shot at the upper third of the net that was knocked away by Webb to retain the Indiana 1-0 advantage.
Despite its effort, Penn State could not come up with the equalizer falling 1-0 and being shut out for the third-straight match.
The Nittany Lions return to Happy Valley for a five-game road stint Tuesday, Oct. 11 when they take on in-state foe Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. at Jeffrey Field.