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INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI men's soccer team weathered an offensive storm from No. 7 Butler on Wednesday afternoon, but escaped with a 0-0 double overtime tie at the Butler Bowl. Sophomore goalkeeper Alex Mannen made eight saves in his second career shutout, going the distance in goal. Butler came into Wednesday's match as the country's last undefeated and untied team and had outscored its opponents 30-6 on the season.

"You can be a little intimidated if you read all the press releases and that kind of thing, but our message to the guys over the past three games is that we can. We just have to believe in ourselves and prove we can," IUPUI Head Coach Steve Franklin said. "The gameplan coming in was to come in and try to get a result, and by result, I'm not meaning a tie. By no means did we ever have a tactical decision to pack it in. That wasn't the intent at all.

"When you play against a team like Butler, in order to get numbers behind, it may appear that way."

Butler (12-0-1) put the heat on the Jaguars from the outset and played its way to a 29-6 shot advantage and incredible 19-0 margin in corner kicks. However, the IUPUI (7-6-1) defense never faltered.

Butler seemingly took a 1-0 lead in the early going when Jacob Vollmer's throw-in got past Mannen and into the net, but it was ruled to have not been touched prior to crossing the endline. Later, Mannen made a highlight reel stop of an Austin Oldham attempt in the 12th minute.

Possession was heavily in Butler's favor in the second half, but the 6-foot-5 Mannen came up huge on stops of restart headers from Matt Hedges and Kyle Pateros in the second half. On one particular save, Mannen had to hold the ball out at arm's length as he was falling back into the goal mouth. He later stonewalled Jacob Capito in the 96th minute to keep the game going.

"We've been practicing hard all week and we've been playing well," Mannen said. "We were confident and we thought we could sneak in here and get a win. I had faith in all my defenders and the whole team. I just tried to keep working hard."

All four of IUPUI's starting backs played more than 100 minutes with Derek Craig, Weston Hawkins and Butler-transfer Galen Cassady playing the entire 110.

"We've got a great defensive line. They had all those corner kicks and we didn't concede any," Mannen added. "Those guys kept winning all those head balls and they just couldn't get anything in. They played amazing."
 
Offensively, IUPUI was limited to just six shots, five of which came in the first half. Junior Perez Agaba put a strike on frame in the 15th minute and sophomore Kyle Hyland created a dangerous chance for BU's Fabian Knopfler in the 31st minute. Hyland was credited with two attempts on the day.

Hedges led Butler with six attempts as 12 different Bulldogs had at least one try.

"I give tremendous credit to Kelly Findley and Dave Costa for what they've done with the program. Now I see why so many teams have had such trouble with them. They keep pounding and pounding and pounding.

"Defensively, I thought our back line and Alex Mannen came up huge. As a coach, you can look at him make 99 phenomenal stops and if one gets by, it all goes for naught. To get a result against a top 10 team nationally and put the first blemish on a perfect season is huge."

The draw snapped IUPUI's seven-match losing skid to Butler coming in.

Having played three straight overtime matches now, IUPUI will return to Summit League play on Saturday when it takes on Centenary at Kuntz Stadium at 2:00 p.m.. That day, IUPUI will host its annual 'Kick for the Cure' event, sponsored by Richard Mann, Attorney at Law. The Jaguars will wear pink jerseys, which will be up for bid over the course of the match. Funds raised by the event will benefit the American Cancer Society.