The IU men’s soccer team lost their second straight matchup on Wednesday night in dramatic fashion.

Non-conference opponent Louisville scored three unanswered goals to secure a 3-2 overtime win and stun a packed Armstrong Stadium.

With the loss, the Hoosiers are now on a two-game losing skid after being shut out by Wisconsin and have tasted defeat for the first time at home this season.

As expected, the matchup between the Big Ten and Big East’s finest was anticipated to be a close battle.  Indiana took an early 1-0 lead in the first half after freshman forward Eriq Zavaleta was able to put the ball into the back of the net after a cross from senior defender Tommy Meyer.

The Hoosier offense, led by Zavaleta and senior midfielder Alec Purdie, relentlessly attacked the Cardinals throughout the first half, controlling possession time and momentum, but missed out on many opportunities to score.

Louisville’s offense – commanded by junior transfer Michael Roman – had strong counter-attacks throughout the first half but they never had an answer to break through the Hoosier defense as Indiana carried their 1-0 lead into halftime.

Head Coach Todd Yeagley went into halftime “very pleased with the performance” his crew was displaying against a strong, mature Louisville team.

“We went into half and continued to talk about what we needed to continue to do and be aware of where their strengths lay,” Yeagley said.

Things seemed to be going the Hoosier’s way coming out of the locker room after halftime. 10:44 into the second half, Purdie was able to net Indiana’s second goal of the night off of sophomore midfielder Harrison Petts’ corner kick.

“We were really good in parts tonight,” Yeagley said. “That allowed us to get that lead and play pretty well. We just need to perform well and eliminate any lack of focus.”

17:11 after Indiana went up 2-0, Louisville finally got the ball past IU goalkeeper Luis Soffner off the foot of senior forward Colin Rolfe.

Rolfe scored his third goal of the season for the Cardinals after redshirt senior midfielder Kenny Walker placed the ball perfectly in place for Rolfe to kick it past Soffner. Forty-seven second later, Walker was back at it again scoring with an assist from Rolfe and tying the game up at two apiece.

Before the game went into overtime, both teams had chances to score and put the game away.

Soffner was able to make a nice save while on the other side of the field Purdie had an opportunity to score, but did not.

In overtime, after nice counter-attacks by both teams, Walker once again was able to come through for Louisville and netted the game-winning goal just 4:43 into overtime, giving Louisville the dramatic victory.

Coach Yeagley acknowledged the fact his team had many missed opportunities of scoring.

“We did everything we could; sometimes you don’t just get that bounce, that break that hits the post,” Yeagley said. “You just got to be composed in the final third and we were for the most part pretty good in that tonight.”

Purdie, who netted his sixth goal of the season at the start of the second half, is not at all worried about his team’s recent results the past two games.

“We can’t dwell on the loss, because the same as Wisconsin, we played just fine tonight,” Purdie said. “If we focus on the result, then that is what’s going to set us back. We have to focus on the way we play; we’re going to be just fine.”

The Hoosiers will be faced with yet another tough non-conference battle in Bloomington against Creighton on Sunday as they look to continue producing encouraging results and get back to their winning ways.