Trio Of Strikers Help Indiana To 4-0 Win Over Oakland
The puzzle that is figuring out Indiana’s strikers didn’t get much clarity Thursday, but Todd Yeagley does have more reason to be optimistic that he’ll be able to figure it out.
Hoosier strikers accounted for three of IU’s four goals in a 4-0 exhibition shutout of Oakland at Bill Armstrong Stadium on Thursday only two days after being shut out by Loyola Chicago 2-0.
Richard Ballard (6th minute), Rashad Hyacenth (46th) and Ian Black (88th) accounted for the damage up top. Phil Fives was the only non-forward to score, netting a goal in the 63rd minute of the match.
“I thought all three (forwards) did some really good things,” Yeagley said, “and they’re all a little different, which is nice. Because we can use them situationally.”
Figuring out a front line is near the top of Yeagley’s priority list this preseason. Ballard, a redshirt senior, appears to likely be a fixture of the offense up top before things begin to get hazy behind him.
Hyacenth, a junior transfer from Belmont who hails from Trinidad & Tobago, has been described by Yeagley as having “a little Femi Hollinger-Janzen in him.” He’s a more physical option in the front.
Black, only a freshman, relies on explosiveness. He excels when he can stretch the field and get behind the defense.
Ballard, the most proven of the bunch, is a mixture of both, Yeagley said. He was pleased to see all three get onto the score sheet.
“I was happy with those three and getting them confident,” Yeagley said.
Hyacenth is perhaps a favorite among the newcomers on the team to make an early impact on the Hoosiers’ scoring. He entered the game as a reserve alongside sophomore Rees Wedderburn, who assisted on Hyacenth’s goal just after halftime, but wound up playing a good portion of the match.
Wedderburn played a number of balls into dangerous scoring opportunities throughout the night and looked like a strong candidate to see minutes on the right wing. Hyacenth said it was no accident that the two were able to get on the same page and make Oakland pay for it.
“We definitely do have a connection because I can speak to him the way I speak back home,” Hyacenth said. “I speak extremely fast, and Weddy understands everything because he has a Jamaican background as well. We do kind of have a Caribbean Connection.”
Yeagley isn’t as sure about the Caribbean part of the connection because of Wedderburn’s English roots, but he’ll take it if it means more goal scoring.
His only complaint on the night was not finishing on a few goals he thought were left on the table, a few of which were directly set up by Wedderburn.
“We just passed the ball better,” Yeagley said. “We did a lot of things tactically better today, but we just passed the ball better. If we can do that, we’re going to play better.”
Senior goalkeeper Colin Webb had a mostly quiet night, facing only a couple of shot attempts in a little more than 60 minutes of work.
The back line led by junior defender Grant Lillard hardly budged, a credit Lillard himself passed along to the other side of the pitch.
“We did a lot better with this game, rather than Loyola, of working with our 10 and 9, pressuring together and making teams predictable,” Lillard said. “It just makes the whole game a lot easier when we work together.”
Yeagley doesn’t allow his team to put much stock into results in the preseason. He did so much tinkering with the lineup throughout the night and against Loyola Chicago that the score sheet isn’t worth analyzing too intently, he insists.
He’s more worried about the play he sees in front of him. Thursday night, he saw enough to walk off Jerry Yeagley Field happy heading into one final tune-up game against UCLA on Saturday.
“Happy,” Yeagley said. “I was just pleased with the performance.”