“Twenty-eight, it’s amazing what this program has done, and yet it feels like it’s your first. That’s how excited I am, and the team. You just want more.”
BLOOMINGTON – As the red smoke cleared from the smoke bombs set off by a robust and rowdy Crimson Guard, IU’s student section serenaded defeated Marshall with a chorus of “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
It was cold, wet and windy, on the last night of Thanksgiving break, but that didn’t keep the several hundred students from turning out for No. 13 Indiana’s home finale Sunday night. And it didn’t stop the Hoosiers riding stout midfield play and excellence out wide to a 1-0 win, and a place in the NCAA tournament national quarterfinal.
That game will be played either Friday or Saturday, with the Hoosiers guaranteed to be on the road against the winner of No. 5 Stanford vs. No. 12 UNC-Greensboro. It will be Indiana’s 28th quarterfinal appearance, tightening its grip on the NCAA’s all-time record.
“Twenty-eight, it’s amazing what this program’s done, and yet it feels like it’s your first,” coach Todd Yeagley said. “That’s how excited I am, and the team. You just want more.”
In a rematch of the 2020 national championship game Indiana lost in golden-goal fashion a year ago spring, Marshall once again presented both physical and technical challenges. The Thundering Herd employed a three-man back line, tilting their formation toward IU’s left to neutralize playmaking winger Ryan Wittenbrink.
Yeagley responded by starting Herbert Endeley, who came off the bench in the round-of-32 win over Saint Louis but played from the opening kickoff Sunday.
Tricky and quick, Endeley gave the Hoosiers (12-4-6) an outlet on the opposite flank. With Marshall intent upon keeping Wittenbrink quiet, Endeley enjoyed time and space, and he used both superbly on a series of slaloming runs down the IU right to get himself in good crossing positions.
“Herb was dynamic tonight,” Yeagley said. “He was really good.”
The Thundering Herd (11-4-4) nevertheless defended resolutely, with IU’s best chance coming on the break when a ball over the top found Sam Sarver. His first touch taking him wide to his right, he flashed his shot past Marshall goalkeeper Oliver Semmle but wide of Semmle’s left post. The breakthrough would have to wait for the other side of halftime.
It wasn’t by accident Wittenbrink, the Hoosiers’ leader this season in goals and assists, was at the center of the action when it finally arrived.
Aggressive from the restart, the Hoosiers won their 11th corner of the match less than two minutes in.
They dominated in that area in the first half, winning 10 corners thanks to aggression down the flanks and good play from Sarver and Maoloune Goumballe holding up the ball and letting IU attacks develop.
Yeagley’s team would only win two corners in the entire second half, but they made the first of them count. Wittenbrink’s inswinging ball floated through the November wind to the back post, where an unmarked Brett Bebej thundered a header past Semmle into the back of the Marshall net.
“That was one of the greatest moments of my career,” Bebej said. “I’m at a loss for words.”
Yeagley said the goal was partly a product of conversations his players held among themselves at halftime, after those 10 first-half corners.
“The guys took ownership,” he said. “They actually made an adjustment at half with us, and said, ‘Hey, why don’t we look for this?’ We changed our runs. Ironically, the first corner, we got the goal.
“That’s when you love it, when the guys are solving things at halftime.”
From there, play evened, then tilted towards the visitors as Marshall pushed for an equalizer. Indiana’s back line of Bebej, Daniel Munie, Joey Maher and Nyk Sessock defended resolutely, with Maher stepping into midfield to provide an extra pair of legs against Marshall’s four.
A tight midfield trio of Patrick McDonald, Jack Wagoner and Ben Yeagley rotated across the half and ran down everything, harrying the Thundering Herd enough to prevent Marshall from managing much effective build-up play.
Most of Marshall’s second-half efforts came from distance, as tired legs and frustration set in. Indiana goalie JT Harms was forced into just a pair of saves, both coming in a five-minute period of Marshall pressure 15 minutes into the second half.
The Thundering Herd did not manage a shot on target in the match’s final 25 minutes.
“They’re a good possession-based team,” Bebej said. “Getting numbers behind the ball and just being aware of their runs, we handled them very well. It was a great performance not only from the back four, but from the midfielders and the forwards.”
Organization as crucial as finishing, the Hoosiers scrapped for their win Sunday night. When the final whistle blew, they rushed the field in an outpouring of emotion that suggested at least some measure of revenge was on their minds.
“That,” said Bebej, who was on the field when Marshall won that game in spring 2021, “was one of the greatest wins I’ve had here at IU.”
From the student section to the pitch, it showed. A John Denver classic serenaded Marshall off the field and Indiana into the Elite Eight. Like their coach, one win from a record 22n.d College Cup, the Hoosiers want more.
Follow IndyStar reporter Zach Osterman on Twitter: @ZachOsterman.