Halloween proved frightening for the UK men’s soccer team as No. 7 Indiana routed the Cats 4-0 at the UK Soccer Complex yesterday.

On the night, the Hoosiers had four goals from four different players, including a three-assist performance from senior midfielder Billy Weaver.

Indiana freshman midfielder Rich Balchan scored the game’s first goal from outside the midfield box in the game’s 12th minute.

Indiana freshman midfielder Daniel Kelly added the Hoosier’s second goal just seven minutes later, giving the road team a 2-0 lead into the half.

Indiana scored twice more in the second half on goals from sophomore midfielder Eric Alexander and junior midfielder Brad Ring and shut out the Cats to seal the victory.

The Cats (6-8-2, 4-0-2 Conference USA) took to the field shorthanded, lacking three players including their team leader in assists, Masumi Turnbull. Turnbull was serving a one-game suspension for receiving his fifth yellow card on the season in Saturday’s win against Florida International.

“Tonight, midfield was Indiana’s strength,” said UK assistant coach Jeff Chaney. “We played without three of our primary players in Turnbull, Jase Griffiths and Nathan Marks. When you take three primary players out for us, and there are three in for Indiana, it’s trouble.”

Senior forward Adam Midkiff said that the Cats suffered from a lack of leadership on the field.

“There was nobody to lead,” Midkiff said. “The guys who did perform were the ones who haven’t played that often.”

It was a struggle for UK all the way through, as they only had three shots in the first half, and no shots on goal. In the second half, UK had a mere two shots.

With the outcome of the game seemingly decided late in the second half, head coach Ian Collins substituted in many of his young players who have not seen much game action recently.

Chaney said UK’s final two games, against Southern Methodist University and South Carolina on Nov. 3 and Nov. 9, respectively, will be twice as important with the C-USA Tournament coming up.

“We need to mentally refocus for the next games and forget about this loss,” Chaney said. “We need to bury it, and think about the next two games.”

Midkiff echoed his coach’s sentiments.

“We need to see how short of a memory we have,” Midkiff said. “We need to realize that this game is in the past, and at least it wasn’t a conference game.”