Indiana men's soccer was having a slow start to its 2024 season, but it got just that much worse on Tuesday night.
The Hoosiers faced the Dayton Flyers out of the Atlantic 10 Conference, who were a tournament team a year ago, but are still inferior competition compared with the IU side.
Despite this, Dayton dominated early and defended IU well when it got chances late, leading to a 2-0 victory in favor of the Flyers.
The slow start to the Hoosiers continues, as IU now stands at one win, two losses and two draws.
Coach Todd Yeagley said after the game that "we've got to get some wins, but no big picture concerns." Reasserting similar thoughts after his team's 1-1 draw at Butler last week.
While the Hoosiers have not gotten the results they've looked for, they've put together some strong play overall. Yeagley saying, "the second half was good" in reference to the game vs. Dayton.
This was true, as IU outshot Dayton 12 to 4 in the second half, aided by a flurry of chances late in the game, all of which fell short, as the Hoosiers looked for the equalizer while it was still 1-0 Dayton.
Coach Yeagley said that "we may have taken a few too many touches" and "we've got to be more clinical with the finish" when he spoke about these missed chances late, although stating that they were mostly "pretty darn close scenarios" and that he thought his team "created enough chances for he luck factor" but, unfortunately for the Hoosiers, none of those found the net.
All this resulted in no goal for IU, meaning no positive result and the second loss of the young season.
Dayton got another goal very late that sealed the deal and put the nail in the coffin for this one for the Hoosiers.
Despite another disappointing loss, Yeagley said "it's not panic time" and that they "had some key guys that [they've] lost" when talking about possibly why this slow start is taking place.
Despite some mild concerns, Yeagley remains optimistic about the rest of the season, even given this disappointing start. He said that "when we get healthy, we'll have a lot of options" referring to who might step up to make sure this season gets turned around.
Yeagley has said time and time again that his team has "performed pretty well" in most games, including this one against Dayton and that he doesn't have "big concerns" despite this one possibly being seen as "below average."
Indiana has a chance to start turning around its season later this week, as they travel to Rutgers for its first Big Ten match of the season. Yeagley saying "it's good the Big Ten is starting," mentioning that there are "two seasons" and the second one will start Friday against the Scarlet Knights in Piscataway.
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