Box Score
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INDIANAPOLIS - Freshman Uriel Macias notched his first career game-winning goal and classmate Emmanuel Usen added some late insurance as the IUPUI men's soccer team raced past Northern Kentucky, 2-0 at Carroll Stadium on Sunday evening (Sept. 21). The Jaguars' defense posted its first shutout of the season as Christian Lomeli made three saves in his first career clean sheet.

Macias put the Jaguars in front just more than 11 minutes into the contest as he was the primary beneficiary of a Clint Hoffar long throw-in. Hoffar sent one of his trademark long throws deep into the NKU (1-2-3) box to Macias, who flicked a shot past goalie A.J. Fleak for the eventual game-winner.

It was Hoffar's sixth career assist, almost exclusively coming via throw-ins.

"It gave us momentum to get the second one," Macias said of the game's first goal. "(Clint) gives us confidence. We know he's going to get it there so we know we have to be the ones who have to get it in."

"Our guys were able to control their emotions (today) and came out and played for each other today," IUPUI Head Coach Isang Jacob said. "Uriel's goal just gave us energy. We were finally able to get a goal off Clint's long throw - that's why we wanted (Uriel) here."

IUPUI (2-4) weathered a storm in the first half as NKU outshot the Jaguars 7-3. That said, the bulk of the NKU attempts came from distance as Lomeli needed just two stops before halftime to keep NKU off the board. The Norse were the aggressors to start the second half as NKU's Cian McDonald had a pair of early shot attempts, both of which missed wide.

The Jaguars made the most of a rare attempt in the 67th minute as freshman Joshua Ayala played a long pass to Usen up the left side. Usen was given time and space to operate and worked past a defender before unloading a right-footed rocket past Fleak for his team-high third goal of the season.

"That was a great goal," Macias said.

"He can score," Jacob said. "He's still got a ways to go. I'll be very honest with you, we haven't seen the best of him yet. It was good to see. It's good to see Uriel score and it's good to see Emmanuel score - that's what we brought them here to do."

IUPUI seemingly waltzed to the finish line from there, limiting NKU to just one shot over the final 30-plus minutes. McDonald led NKU with five shot attempts while Macias paced the Jags with four tries. NKU finished the match with a 13-10 shot advantage, but was unable to solve the Jaguars' back line. Jacob shrunk his bench and tightened the rotations, using just three different subs on Sunday.

"We were more organized today and it showed in the way we played," Jacob said. "We just need to bring it out, we still have work to do."

IUPUI improved to 2-2-1 all-time against NKU and 1-1 at home this season.

The Jags will now open Summit League action on Sept. 27 when they trek to Fort Wayne to take on the Mastodons at Hefner Field at 6:00 p.m..