Unbeaten Kentucky blows out No. 2 Indiana in front of record crowd.

With a record crowd of 3,503 still pouring into The Bell on Wednesday night, forward JJ Williams staked No. 4 Kentucky to a lead over No. 2 Indiana. In the second half, he and teammate Jason Reyes brought them all to their feet by stunning the eight-time national champs in a 3-0 victory.

Williams’ free kick from about 21 yards out left of goal struck the underside of the crossbar and bounced into the charging Reyes sending the ball into the net and the players into the arms of a packed and jubilant student section for a 2-0 lead with six minutes left.

Williams then put a capper on the evening three minutes later to turn it into a rout by shedding a lone Hoosiers defender inside the box and burying a right-footed shot to the left of keeper Trey Muse.

The loss handed Indiana (9-2-0) only its second loss of the season. Its only other defeat came to No. 1 Wake Forest. Kentucky remained undefeated at 9-0-1.

It was just the kind of big-time performance seventh-year Coach Johan Cedergren was looking for from a team that missed the NCAA Tournament last year for only the second time in his tenure.

“I do think that some of the players that we have are some of the best at their position in college soccer,” Cedergren said Tuesday, ahead of the match. “We worked really, really hard in the winter and the spring on becoming better in attack and to score more goals. I think guys like JJ and Kalil (Elmedkhar) are proving that all that hard work is paying off.”

The top-five match put a buzz in the stands and perhaps helped the Cats surge dangerously into Indiana’s final third at the outset.

A Reyes pass found Williams alone atop the center of the box with no Hoosier within range to step to him. Williams made a touch right to set himself up and buried the ball into the bottom left corner beyond a diving Muse. Muse is a Louisville native and son of former UK keeper Dave Muse.

“I remember being recruited here and what he tells everybody when they come here: We come here to put ourselves in position to play big games, and big players show up in big games,” Williams said Tuesday.

Indiana threatened a number of times in the second half, but could not find the net as UK keeper Enrique Facusse turned away every chance and half-chance. He had four saves on the night.

Next game

No. 4 Kentucky at Florida International

When: 7 p.m. Sunday

This story was originally published October 3, 2018 at 9:23 PM.