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DETROIT - The IUPUI men's soccer team will open the 2013 regular season on Friday (Aug. 30) afternoon when the Jaguars head north to take on Horizon League foe Detroit at Titan Field. Detroit leads the all-time series by a 4-2 margin, despite the Jaguars winning last year's season opener 2-0 at Michael A. Carroll Stadium. 

Last season, IUPUI got a pair of second half goals from current Columbus Crew rookie Kyle Hyland and a six-save shutout from Eduardo Cortes on way to the 2-0 win. 

This year, Cortes and the Jaguars have been equally strong defensively in the preseason. IUPUI yielded just one goal in a 90 minute scoreless draw at Northern Illinois (Aug. 17) and followed up with a 1-0 loss at SIU Edwardsville (Aug. 23) on a penalty kick in the 73rd minute. Cortes posted a 0.80 goals against average in the preseason while freshman Christian Lomeli and sophomore Jess Clark were unscored upon in lesser action. 

The back line was keyed by freshmen Ben Ogedegbe and Cameron Knox and sophomores Michael Sass and Clint Hoffar. 

"They're working together," IUPUI Head Coach Isang Jacob said of his defensive group. "I think they're finally doing a good job of playing well together and understanding each other. That was a key emphasis during the preseason - just having a collective core group of guys that like to work with each other and for each other." 

Offensively, the Jaguars were unable to dent the net in two preseason games, but hope to get some added weapons to start the season. The quartet of Kirklin Ring, Ian Block, Gregory Efiom and Cristian Soto led IUPUI with three shots each in the two preseason games. Ring put two shots on frame and Block had a goal disallowed at SIUE due to an infraction. 

Jacob praised his team's depth during the preseason. 

"Just knowing that we have multiple guys in each of the positions that are going to be able to help us is the thing that I like well," Jacob said. "Our freshmen have come in and shown that they want to compete for positions. Our depth in the goalkeeping area is fantastic as well.

IUPUI has never beaten the Titans in Detroit, but has won the past two meetings between the two schools. The Jaguars last lost to UDM by a 3-2 score on Sept. 16, 2005. 

This year's Titans opened the preseason with a 2-2 draw at Pittsburgh and is led by 2012 Horizon League Player of the Year Adam Bedell. Bedell, a 6-foot-6 midfielder, had 11 goals and five assists last season as UDM finished at 10-9 overall and won the league's regular season title. All total, the Titans return 18 of 23 letterwinners from a season ago.