COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite not losing a match until the national championship a year ago, the Indiana men’s soccer team failed to bring home a single trophy.

The second-ranked Hoosiers took the first of what they hope to be three steps in righting that wrong on Wednesday night, clinching the outright regular-season Big Ten championship with a 1-0 victory at Ohio State.

“It’s great (to win the title), the guys have been so close the last couple years,” IU coach Todd Yeagley said. “We felt every game this year we were really focused on having a moment like this, and I’m super happy for the seniors in particular because of how good they’ve been in the course of their time here, and this Big Ten run is quite special, this streak we have. To get rewarded with the trophy was great.”

The streak involves Indiana going unbeaten in its last 35 conference matches, posting a record of 22-0-13 dating back to Oct. 10, 2015.

But for the first time since 2010, Yeagley’s debut season in Bloomington, the Hoosiers (14-2, 7-0 B1G) are Big Ten champions. It is the 15th regular-season crown in program history.

Not only that, they have the chance with a win or draw against Michigan State in the regular-season finale to be the first team since Maryland in 2016 to go unbeaten in Big Ten play. Penn State was the lost team to go unbeaten and untied in 2005.

On Wednesday, the last-place Buckeyes (1-13-2, 0-6-1) didn’t go down without a fight.

Indiana, however, got the spark it needed from leading scorer Andrew Gutman, who Yeagley pushed up into the midfield with Spencer Glass filling in at left back. Rece Buckmaster also moved into the midfield with Jordan Kleyn at right back as the Hoosiers tried to awaken the offense in a sleepy affair.

The move paid off in the 28th minute as Glass took a pass from Frankie Moore on the left wing and swung the ball in towards the six, where Gutman was making a darting run from the other side of the box, knocking a header past Ohio State goalkeeper Parker Siegfried for the lead.