Krissy Kirkhoff & Grace Perkowitz Postgame I
Chris Johnson Postgame
INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI women's soccer team got a much needed 2-0 home win over Denver on Friday night (Oct. 10), thanks to early goals from
Grace Perkowitz and
Krissy Kirkhoff and a nine save shutout from freshman goalie
Catherine Schmidt. Perkowitz notched her third career game-winner while Kirkhoff scored for the fifth time during the 2014 season to fuel the victory.
Schmidt earned her first career shutout and matched her career-high with nine stops in the win.
"Being home is a big help to us," IUPUI Head Coach
Chris Johnson said. "We have a very talented team and we've seen it in spurts this year, but we saw it for 90 minutes for sure tonight. It was a great 90 minute effort out there.
"(Cat) did a great job of managing the game tonight. She communicated with her back line - as a freshman, it's always difficult to tell people who are older than you and have more experience, what to do. She's really growing into that role for us and I'm very happy she had the success she had tonight."
IUPUI (3-8-3, 1-2 Summit) wasted little time in taking control of the match, scoring in the fourth minute against the Pioneers. Junior
Kalli Shepler-Tucker drove a well placed corner kick to the top of the six-yard box, where Perkowitz headed a shot past DU goalie Tina Vargas. The assist was the 12th of Shepler-Tucker's career, placing her third on IUPUI's all-time list behind only Sheri Levack (15) and Alicia Brock (13).
"We haven't put ourselves in a good position all year," Johnson said of the game's first goal. "We've kind of chased a lot of games. It was a great way to step out on the field and establish what we wanted to do."
"I think we've struggled in the first half in a lot of games this season and we did a really good job tonight of putting two away early," Perkowitz said. "I think (the first goal) was extremely important. Even more important was how we responded after we scored that goal. We kept going at them and didn't let up."
The Jaguars netted insurance in the 23rd minute on Kirkhoff's fifth goal of the season, coming from an assist from junior
Lauren Kulaga.
Kulaga carried the ball from the center back position forward before springing Kirkhoff loose on a breakaway by rolling a lead pass ahead. Kirkhoff did the rest, cutting past a defender before angling a left-footed shot just inside the right post as Vargas was well off her back line, trying to cutoff the attempt.
"She's really kind of fine tuning what she's doing and learning how to adjust to the physicality of the game," Johnson said of Kirkhoff.
The two-goal lead proved to be more than enough as Schmidt enjoyed one of her best nights of the season, despite cold and wet conditions.
The Denver attack tested her repeatedly, primarily from distance, as the Jaguars' back line did a solid job of keeping things clean. Schmidt made seven of her nine saves in the second half as the Pioneers finished the match with a 19-10 shot advantage. That said, the Jaguars had two second half scoring chance go by the boards as Perkowitz had a similar header as to the one she scored on, blocked by a Denver defender in the 49th minute and
Tori Minnich missed just wide on a sliding shot attempt in the 55th minute.
Sam Harder led Denver (5-7-1, 1-2) with four shot attempts while Minnich had three for the Jaguars.
With the win, IUPUI improved to 1-2 all-time against Denver and 1-1 as conference foes, coming off last year's 6-0 loss in the Mile High City.
IUPUI will be back in action on Sunday when they head north to take on Fort Wayne at 1:00 p.m. at Hefner Soccer Complex.
