Soccer can be a quirky game. All it takes is one opportunity and a game seemingly headed for a draw can become a win for one side. On Sunday afternoon, the Iowa Soccer team was the better team for the majority of their match against Indiana, but just were not able to break through with a goal. The Hawkeyes kept pushing and, finally, in the 74th minute, Maya Hansen slotted home the winner to move earn Iowa their tenth win of the season. They are now just one of three remaining undefeated teams.

“I don’t know if we win that game last year, in terms of doing the little things right for a long period of time until we get confidence and get the right person on a ball in the box,” said head coach Dave Dilanni. “It doesn’t matter who it is in the Big Ten, these games are hard and they’re all really good…I thought it was a well-played game for us against a team that was incredibly hungry.”

The Hawkeyes totaled six shots in the first half, including two on goal, while Indiana did not put a single shot on goal over the first 30 minutes. Iowa had a couple of chances early in the match, but Dave Dilanni said he felt like Indiana came in with a good game plan to limit their chances.

“I thought we had a great start to the game, created some really good opportunities, but unfortunately, we didn’t take advantage of the opportunities early on. Credit to Indiana, I thought Indiana had a good game plan and I thought we didn’t handle their pressure very well in the first half, but we didn’t give up anything dangerous.”

Early in the second half, Iowa pushed forward with some chances. They totaled four shots, and a corner kick in a six-minute span, but none of the shots were on goal. Despite earning the majority of the chances throughout the game, there was a growing feeling that the game could be headed towards a scoreless draw.

That notion was thwarted in the 74th minute. Iowa midfielder Meike Ingles pushed the ball forward in transition and sent a fantastic through ball to Maya Hansen in the box. Hansen ran onto the ball and sent a low shot at the far post, beating Indiana GK Jamie Gerstenberg for the lone goal of the game. It’s her second game-deciding goal of the season and her fifth overall.

“One thing (Coach) Dave told me before I went in was just to stay high in the line, be a threat behind the back line, so that’s the thing that was in the forefront of my mind,” said Hansen. “Meike put a perfect amount of finesse on that ball to set me up for a good shot…the goalie shifted towards the near post, (going) back across where her momentum is coming from, that’s something that was in my mind.”

The Hawkeyes were forced to defend against an Indiana corner kick in the 77th minute, but that was all for the Hoosiers. Iowa outshot Indiana 14-7, with seven different players recording a shot for the Hawkeyes.

With the win, Iowa moves to 10-0-3 overall, and 5-0-1 in the Big Ten, where they are tied for first in the standings. The Hawkeyes have just one top three finish in program history (1999).

“This group has a goal to win the Big Ten Championship. For that to happen, we’re probably going to have to run the table. One game at a time, with Wisconsin coming up next.”

Up Next: The Hawkeyes will host the Wisconsin Badgers at the UI Soccer Complex on Thursday night. It will be a rematch of last season’s Big Ten Tournament Championship game. Kickoff is set for 7:00pm CT on BTN+.

The post Late winner from Maya Hansen pushes Iowa Soccer past Indiana appeared first on On3.