Indiana, UCSB Reach Final

The dance goes on.

Defending national champion Indiana bounced back to score two goals in the second half and another with only 48 seconds remaining in overtime to defeat Maryland, 3-2, Friday night in the semifinals of the NCAA men’s soccer championship.

“You made it to the dance, now you’ve just got to go out and boogie,” Indiana Coach Mike Freitag had told his players Thursday.

That they did.

And it was sophomore midfielder John Michael Hayden’s dramatic winning goal, on a crashing header off a pass by Danny O’Rourke in the final minute of play, that will keep the Hoosiers dancing.

Joining them in Sunday’s 1 p.m. final will be No. 9-seeded UC Santa Barbara, which routed Duke, 5-0, in the second match of the doubleheader, played in front of 10,647 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.

The opening match pitted the nation’s No. 2- and No. 3-seeded teams, and for the first 45 minutes it appeared that No. 3 Maryland would end its unhappy streak after losing in the semifinals each of the past two years.

There was no such luck for the Terrapins.

With the game seemingly destined to go to penalty kicks, a skillful bit of trickery by Indiana midfielder Charley Traylor left two Maryland defenders beaten, and O’Rourke’s subsequent cross into the box from the right was perfect.

Hayden sprinted into the penalty area and leaped to head the ball into the net a split-second before Maryland goalkeeper Noah Palmer got to it.

The goal put the Hoosiers into their 13th final. They have won the title six times.

It was a seesaw match, played at a crackling pace and with plenty of skill on display for the fans and the couple of dozen Major League Soccer coaches and assistants scouting the semifinals.

Maryland took the lead on a 35th-minute goal by Jason Garey, the second-leading scorer in Division I soccer this season with 21 goals, when he redirected a shot by teammate Abe Thompson past Indiana goalkeeper Jay Nolly.

Indiana tied on Brian Plotkin’s well struck free kick in the 52nd minute and then went ahead when the lively Mike Ambersley scored in the 71st minute. Maryland evened things again with less than eight minutes to go on a superb header by Maurice Edu off a corner kick by Michael Dello-Russo.

That set the scene for Hayden to provide the exclamation mark. “It was the best college soccer game that I’ve seen or been a part of since the 1995 semifinal between Virginia and Duke,” said Maryland Coach Sasho Cirovski. “It was a great, great game.

“Losing the game, you might as well lose on a big-time goal, and that’s what we did. If a player makes that kind of play, then all credit goes to him.

“I can’t hide the fact that I’m gutted, and the team is, but I’m

The nightcap was not quite as dramatic, but it was entertaining, enlivened by the fans who had driven from Santa Barbara.

Two goals by Drew McAthy and one apiece by Jonathan Davis, Tony Lochhead and Matt Bly all but finished the unseeded Blue Devils and set up a final between the defending champions and the first-time finalists.