Indy Eleven hands Hartford their first loss of the season

Hartford’s Tyreke Johnson, left, and Indianapolis’ Tyler Pasher (23) battle for the ball in Wednesday’s USL Championship game at Lucas Oil Stadium. Pasher got his fourth game-winning goal of the year in a 4-1 win over Hartford (Matt Schlotzhauer photo courtesy Hartford Athletic)

INDIANAPOLIS, July 29, 2020 – Indianapolis’ Tyler Pasher scored his league-leading sixth goal of the season to snap a tie match and the Indy Eleven added two goals in the final seven minutes of the match to pull away from the Hartford Athletic with a 4-1 USL Championship win on Wednesday night at the Lucas Oil Center.

It is the first loss of the season for Hartford (3-1), who won their first three matches of the season. Indy Eleven (4-1), which leads Group E in the USL’s Eastern Conference, won their 12th straight match at home.

Indy Eleven took the lead immediately with less than three minutes gone in the game. Macauley King delivered a beautiful cross to the far post where Nick Moon snuck behind the Hartford defense to head the ball off the gloves of Athletic goalie Parfait Mandanda and into the net.

Hartford’s pressure generated a number of Indy turnovers in their own end of the field, but Hartford was unable to find any goals in the first half.

Hartford’s Alex Dixon (11) leaps for the ball in Wednesday night’s USL Championship game in Indianapolis. Dixon scored for the Athletic early in the second half. (Trevor Ruszkowski photo courtesy Hartford Athletic)

Hartford came out with an abundance of energy and scored in just 48 seconds after the start of the second half. Harry Swartz raced up the right flank and played a ball up to Alex Dixon, who volleyed through the legs of a defender to tie the match at 1-1.

But just four minutes later, Pasher answered for Indy Eleven. With the ball in the final third, Hartford’s Conor McGlynn forced Pasher to lose the ball with a slide tackle. But the loose ball deflected off of Swartz and Indianpoli’s Ilija Ilic was in perfect position to collect the ball and drop it off to a wide open Pasher to reclaim the lead.

It was his fourth game-winning goal of the season for Pasher.

Hartford (3-1) remains in first place in Group F and returns to action on Sunday evening, August 2, at 7 p.m. when the Athletic host Group F rival Loudoun United (Leesburg, Va.) at Dillon Stadium.

Indianapolis 4, Hartford 1
At Indianapolis
Hartford (3-1)               0   1  — 1
Indianapolis (4-1)        1   3  — 4
Goals: Indy — Nick Moon, 4 (Macauley King), Tyler Pashner, 51 (Illija Ilic), Drew Conner, 83 (Karl Ouimette), Matthew Watson, 87 (Ouimette); Hartford – Alex Dixon, 46 (Harry Swartz)
Shots: Indianapolis 17-8; Shots on target: Indianapolis 6-3; Corners: Indy 5-2; Possession: Indianapolis 53.3 to 41.7; Saves: Parfait Mandanda (H) 2, Evan Newtown (Indy) 2

Group F