A late goal from the Xavier Musketeers was the only tally of the day in a 1-0 victory over Indiana on the final day of the ShindigZ National Soccer Festival in Fort Wayne, Ind.

 Darin Kruzich scored the game’s only goal in the 79^th minute with a long crossing ball into the goal mouth that carried into the net off goalkeeper Nate Mitchell.

 Indiana’s offense looked disjointed and struggled to communicate early on, with Xavier also struggling to get anything going early on offense.  The Musketeers had an early 4-0 lead in the shot tally, but with 30 minutes to play in the first half the Hoosiers had attempts from senior Alec Purdie and junior Aris Zafeiratos, both of which resulted in corner kicks.

 Midway through the first period Xavier had a couple of chances that had snuck just wide right of the net, including a header from James Queree with 23:41 to play. The Hoosiers third shot of the first half came with 4:35 left as freshman Patrick Doody headed down a cross from sophomore Jamie Vollmer that was snatched up by XU goalkeeper Justin Marshall.

 The Hoosiers showed more life in the second half, with three consecutive corner kicks early on. Junior Joe Tolen took the third kick from the left side and nearly got the ball through in the mixer in front of the net.

 Freshman Michael Soderlund played the first 69 minutes in goal and made a daring move on a ball, coming out to take it away from Xavier’s Luke Spencer just outside the 18. Spencer went down in the process, resulting in a caution for Soderlund.

 Freshman Eriq Zavaleta, making his second-straight start as the lone striker up top, got the ball in around the net with 29 minutes to play and took a shot that was quickly blocked. The rebound came back to Zavaleta, but he was quickly surrounded by three blue shirts.

 Just a few minutes later, sophomore A.J. Corrado played a pass into Zavaleta, who had his back to the net, but he could not bring it down quick enough as the Xavier defense converged.

 In the 76^th minute Tolen again got a ball into the box, this time from the right side, but junior Chris Estridge sent his header high. With five minutes to play it was Tolen’s turn to get under the ball but his header was just off Target.

 The 2011 season officially gets underway this Saturday when Indiana travels to Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish is ranked No. 12 in the NSCAA preseason poll, while the Hoosiers are No. 17. Notre Dame won last year’s meeting in Bloomington, 2-1, but Indiana has won three of the last four.

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