BLOOMINGTON, IND – Rutgers men's soccer (6-0-1, 1-0-0 Big Ten) upset No. 11 Indiana (3-2-1, 0-1-0 Big Ten) by a score of 2-1 on the road in Bloomington Friday night to remain unbeaten in 2021. The Scarlet Knights erased a 1-0 deficit with two second half goals for the win.
Freshman forward
Nico Rosamilia scored the equalizer for Rutgers, marking his third goal of his young career. Junior midfielder
Jackson Temple recorded the game winner with his second goal of the season and ninth of his career. Sophomore forward
Ola Maeland added his fourth assist of the season, while goalkeeper
Oren Asher recorded two saves en route to a victory.
Rutgers found its first shot of the game on target in the 3rd minute, as senior midfielder
Pablo Avila's attempt was held off by Indiana's keeper. The next shot in the match came in the 23rd minute by Indiana, this one finding the back of the net for 1-0 Hoosier edge.
RU held IU to just three shots overall in the first half. In the final minutes of the opening stanza, senior forward
Ritchie Barry found back-to-back shots for the Scarlet Knights. The Hoosiers' keeper recorded his second save of the match on the first, as the defense blocked the second to keep the margin at 1-0 entering halftime.
After a huge stop by Asher in the 53rd minute kept it a one score game, Rosamilia found the equalizer in the 58
th minute. A swift pass from Barry from the midfield, set up Rosamilia at the top of the box. He worked through traffic, scoring off a Hoosier deflection to balance the score at 1-1. It marked the first goal scored against Indiana since 2015.
Rutgers didn't stop there. In the 70
th minute, Temple gave the Scarlet Knights the lead with an incredible sliding kick off an assist from Maeland, finding the upper 90 for a 2-1 RU advantage. Although Indiana challenged in the 85th minute with back-to-back shots, Asher recorded his second save of the match and the defense denied the second to secure the victory.
A total of 16 Scarlet Knights saw action in the match. Defenders
Thomas DeVizio,
Joey Zalinsky, and
Vincent Borden, and midfielder
Pablo Avila all tallied 90 minutes.
RU maintained the edge in a tightly contested match, leading IU in shots, 9-8, and shots on goal, 4-3. Both keepers registered two saves in the match. The win marked the Scarlet Knights first over a ranked opponent since topping No. 18 Ohio State in 2015.
Rutgers returns home to host Penn on Monday at 7 p.m. on Big Ten+ from Yurcak Field.
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