Kevin Johnston

IndyStar correspondent

In the Indy Eleven’s biggest match of its North American Soccer League fall campaign – a chance to gain points on the first-place New York Cosmos – the Eleven rose to the occasion at Carroll Stadium with a 3-0 win in one of the club’s most inspired outings of 2016.

The Eleven entered trailing the Cosmos by seven points in the fall standings, so a loss would’ve put Indy 10 points back and all but out of the fall title picture. Instead, Indy kept its fall hopes alive by moving to just four points behind New York with the win.

Indy dominated the first half, asserting its will early while New York hardly threatened the Eleven back four. The home side was rewarded with a 32nd-minute goal for its sublime work before the break.

Don Smart served in a dangerous ball that found Eamon Zayed at the far post, who then wisely headed the ball back across the face of the goal for Justin Braun to head in.

From there, things only got worse for the Cosmos; Indy quickly tacked on two more goals.

Dylan Mares assisted on a 48th-minute Zayed tally, then buried one of his own on a pass from Braun in the 51st minute.

Braun, Zayed and Mares finished with one goal and one assist each – statistics which were a microcosm of Indy’s total team effort.

“Tonight was a complete effort,” said Eleven coach Tim Hankinson. “It just shows that if we have complete efforts like that on both sides of the game plan, then we can beat the best in the league.”

Braun agreed “100 percent” with his coach’s assessment.

“Everyone that stepped on that field gave everything they had. I think we’ve shown that this whole season,” Braun said. “It’s not about just one individual player, it’s about the collectiveness of the group.”

The Cosmos’ showing seemed uncharacteristically lethargic. They came out flat, never gained much momentum and seemed to only get more demoralized as the match wore on.

Tactically, Hankinson deployed the same 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield that he debuted last weekend. In the formation, Sinisa Ubiparipovic plays as a true central attacking midfielder, while Gerardo Torrado sits behind him as the lone defensive midfielder.

Ubiparipovic was brought in over the offseason to play that role in what was then a 4-2-3-1, but when Indy switched to a 4-4-2, Hankinson opted for more defensive-minded central midfielders. And with a roster full of them – even before the addition of Torrado – in Brad Ring, Nicki Paterson and now-departed Gorka Larrea, Ubiparipovic became the odd man out.

Now, he’s back in the lineup and giving the Eleven attack the lift it needed.

“After not playing for a long period of time due to injury and some other reasons, I need match fitness,” Ubiparipovic said. “And I need to build it up leading into the playoffs.”