Isang Jacob Postgame I Eduardo Cortes Postgame

INDIANAPOLIS - Junior goalie Eduardo Cortes turned in a school record 16 saves and freshman Uriel Macias registered his league-best seventh goal of the year as the IUPUI men's soccer team played Western Illinois to a 1-1 tie at Michael A. Carroll Stadium on Saturday night (Oct. 25). The draw was the first blemish on WIU's conference record this season as the Fighting Leathernecks came in 3-0 at the schedule's midpoint. 

IUPUI moved to 4-7-2 overall and 1-2-1 in The Summit League while Western is now 8-4-3 overall and 1-2-1. 

"I thought the boys worked hard," IUPUI Head Coach Isang Jacob said. "(WIU) is a very difficult team to play. They play very direct and you've got to give them credit, it's worked for them so far. 

"(Cortes) was man of the match. He did outstanding today." 

IUPUI became the first Summit League foe to score against Western this season when Macias put the Jaguars' in front in the game's 17th minute. After a WIU foul near midfield, sophomore Ben Ogedegbe played the restart to Emmanuel Usen, playing back to goal. Usen tapped the ball back to Macias, who unloaded a bullet past WIU's Yves Dietrich for the game's first goal.

"We knew if we isolated them 1-v-1, we've got the guys who can put the balls away. We got in behind them," Jacob said. "We knew we could get them 1-v-1. Give credit to Dietrich, I thought he did well today and also the crossbar did a good job for them today." 

"We got confidence off (the goal)," Cortes said. "Uriel's goal gave us momentum through the whole game." 

The game got muddy late in the first half with a flurry of whistles and cards making rhythm difficult for both sides. 

IUPUI bunkered in and weathered a storm of WIU attempts before finally cracking in the 58th minute. Ben Fiddes angled a diagonal pass to Austin Gochneaur, who made a well-time run and headed a shot past Cortes for the equalizer. 

That was the only blemish against the Cortes and the Jaguars' defense the entire night. While Western fired from all distances and angles, Cortes seemingly always had the answer. He stoned Gochneaur in the first half diving to his left and in the second half, he made two highlight reel stops against Mario Alvarez. 

IUPUI had two golden opportunities in the first overtime, the first in the 99th minute when Macias just missed a header over the bar. Less than a minute later, Macias fired about a foot over the bar on his fourth shot attempt of the evening.

Freshman Jonathan Kopp opened the second overtime with a drive from the right side that was snared by Dietrich, however, the Jaguars' best look of the night came in the 109th minute. Usen was high-tailing a run away from goal but was able to drill a shot off the woodwork with just 90 seconds left in the match. The shot had Dietrich beaten on the play, but ricocheted back onto the field. The match fittingly ended with Diego Lopez putting a shot on target for WIU, which Cortes played easily. 

Cortes' 16 stops eclipsed the previous mark of 14, achieved most recently by Drew Deffner against Loyola in 2003.

 "Today our back four was really good. We just made one miscue and they got a goal off of it," Cortes said. "Throughout the whole game, I credit the whole defense. I'm there behind them and they're there to support me as well. It was a team effort today." 

WIU attempted 30 shots, led by Alvarez's 10 attempts. 

The draw left the Jaguars tied for fifth in The Summit League standings with four points and two matches remaining. IUPUI will next host Denver (8-6-1, 2-1-1) on Friday, Oct. 31 at Carroll Stadium as part of a doubleheader. The men's match will kickoff at 5:00 p.m., followed immediately after by the women's match with South Dakota.