Indiana Soccer Blanks Butler 1-0 With Sarver's Second Goal This Season

The Hoosiers hadn't scored in the past two weeks. Indiana men's soccer head coach Todd Yeagley changed the team's formation to 4-5-1 for Tuesday night's home match versus Butler. Indiana broke through with another goal via the Sam Sarver and Collins Oduro duo.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A formation change helped Indiana snap a two-week scoring drought Tuesday against Butler.

Indiana head coach Todd Yeagley altered the positions of the four-player attack for the first time in five matches last Friday versus Wisconsin, though the Badgers still blanked Indiana.

But Yeagley made even larger changes Tuesday, altering the formation. Rather than the classic 4-4-2 formation, Yeagley opted for the 4-5-1, which overloaded the midfield. Junior Sam Sarver was the lone forward up top, and he scored the lone goal in the 10th minute of Indiana's 1-0 shutout win over Butler at Bill Armstrong Stadium. 

Early into the match, It was clear that Indiana was easily able to out-flank the Bulldogs. Tuesday was the fastest Indiana has scored in 17 matches, dating back to Oct. 25, 2022 in a 1-1 draw at Evansville. 

"It was just personnel with the way Luka [Bezerra] plays," Yeagley said about the formation change. "But systematically, it wasn't tons different. It's just kind of where guys float into. With [Quinten Helmer], he's similar and plays that way, but we still press out with two up top. So yeah, we just wanted to get more — Luka and Quinten are two of our better finishers."

Bezerra made his first start of the season as the central midfielder, though he appeared in all six matches prior to Butler. In the 10th minute, Bezerra received Brett Bebej's throw-in in the attacking third and passed to one of the outmost midfielders, Collins Oduro, who played the identical position last Friday. With space out wide, Oduro's dazzling footwork beat his defender in the box.

Sarver lurked into the six-yard box completely unmarked and tapped in the goal. The Sarver-Oduro combo has totaled four of the team’s five goals this season and three assists – all to each other. 

"[Oduro's] very shifty and sometimes," Sarver said. "You don't know how many stepovers he may do. So you kind of got to read it. I let him beat the guy first and then I made the run. … I got unlucky versus Wisconsin, [Oduro] put in a great ball and I missed it by like, maybe a foot. I told him (before Tuesday's match), 'beat that kid and just play that same exact ball and I'll be there again."

It was the first shot on goal for either side. The Hoosiers concluded the victory out-shooting the Bulldogs 16-7 and 7-0 in shots on target. That's not to suggest that Butler didn't have scoring chances, though. In each half, the Bulldogs struck one shot that went just above the crossbar, which doesn't count as on target. In the 87th minute, the Bulldogs seriously threatened the equalizer with a well-placed through-ball in the box to the wide-open DJ Hooks, who missed the difficult volley.

Besides those chances, Indiana's backline – which will move up nationally in the top-10 goals against average rankings – held Butler's Palmer Ault at bay. Ault was named the 2023 Preseason Big East Offensive Player of the Year and had scored all four of Butler's goals going into Tuesday, yet had zero shots against the Hoosiers. 

Yeagley was pleased with his two central centerbacks, Joey Maher and Jansen Miller, and the two central midfielders, Patrick McDonald and Jack Wagoner. That group has contributed to Indiana allowing fewer than four shots on target per match this season. 

Despite the win, Yeagley expected one or two more goals on Tuesday. Indiana had a variety of second-half chances, including one right in front of the net with 20 seconds left. Regardless, he and the Hoosiers will gracefully accepted this win, with conference play resuming on Friday at Michigan State.