INDIANAPOLIS - Freshman Pedro Valladao drilled a strike into the upper right-hand corner after a restart to send the IUPUI men's soccer team to a 1-0 victory over Eastern Illinois on Saturday night (Nov. 5). Junior Uriel Macias collected his team-high seventh point on the play, helping the Jags capture their lone Summit League win of the year.

The game-winner came via restart deep in EIU (5-11-1, 2-4 Summit) territory in the 85th minute as senior Cristian Soto, Macias and Valladao all stood over the ball. After Soto and Valladao ran through, Macias drove a low liner directly into the Eastern Illinois wall. The deflection popped right to Valladao, who blasted a shot past EIU's Mike Novotny for the game's only goal.

"I gotta give Pedro as an individual player a lot of credit," IUPUI Head Coach Brian Barnett said. "(He has) a very acute awareness of what he needed to do to develop over the course of the season relative to being successful in college soccer.

"I'm super happy for him as an individual and I'm super excited about his future development."

Eastern Illinois challenged late, but sophomore goalie Josh Gray was able to endure to secure his second shutout of the season.

IUPUI came out on the attack, nearly getting the game's first goal in the opening three minutes. Sophomore Sean Siasia challenged Novotny with a shot in the second minute and then the Jags nearly hit paydirt on an ensuing corner kick. Freshman Nathan Silva sent in a brilliant ball to Siasia, who put an initial attempt on frame. Junior Joshua Ayala's rebound attempt was then cleared off the line by an EIU defender for another IUPUI corner kick.

IUPUI finished with a 6-3 edge in corners as both teams accumulated 12 shot attempts. 

EIU's best attempt of the match came in the 29th minute when Jonathan Huerta drilled the crossbar on a restart from roughly 25 yards out.

Both Huerta and Valladao finished tied with a game-high three shot attempts. Gray collected five saves, closing the season with 77 stops.

The match was the final collegiate match for Soto, Carlos Albor and Cameron Knox. Albor earned his second start of the year while Knox made his ninth straight start to end the season. Soto made his 14th start and closed the year third on the squad with 22 shot attempts.

"You've got to congratulate the seniors on their four-year careers," Barnett said. "It's their sweat equity that has helped put the team in position over the course of the season with their leadership to win this final game.

"I told the guys before the game started that every win streak has to start somewhere, so why can't it start tonight? I'm pleased with the performance cumulatively across the board with every single player that put in minutes tonight."