INDIANAPOLIS - Junior forward Uriel Macias scored a pair of goals and classmate Joshua Ayala contributed a pair of assists as the IUPUI men's soccer team rolled past Northern Illinois, 2-0 on a chilly Wednesday night (Sept. 28) at the on-campus Michael A. Carroll Stadium. The win was the first of Head Coach Brian Barnett's career and sophomore goalkeeper Josh Gray collected his first career shutout in the process. 

Northern Illinois dropped to 1-5-2 on the year. 

"We've been wanting to win ever since the game started," Macias said. "We needed this win for confidence for going into Saturday against Omaha."

"It's great for the student-athletes," Barnett said. "These guys have been showing up every single day and working as hard as possible and doing everything that's asked of them. You show up everyday, you work hard and continue to try to learn the little things and execute on a daily basis and it'll come together on game night. Tonight, fortunately, that happened for us.

"Across the field, man for man that stepped on out there, executed their role perfectly, defended well and kept good possession of the ball when we needed to. It was a great night for us cumulatively as a team." 

IUPUI broke a long scoreless string in the game's 12th minute as Macias revisited the scoring column for the second time this season. The play began with a restart just inside midfield as Ben Thornton tapped a pass to Ayala, who drove a ball to Macias, who chested his shot past NIU goalie Drew Donnally from 10 yards out. 

"I didn't see it until the end, honestly," Macias said of Ayala's service. "It hit me right in the chest and gladly it went in."

IUPUI (1-7) had some near misses in the first half as well, highlighted by a Pedro Valladao bicycle attempt from 12 yards out that went just wide of the left post. Senior Cristian Soto thought he had a goal as well, but the ball was snared off the back line by NIU goalie Drew Donnally before crossing the endline. The Jaguars had far and away their most aggressive offensive half of soccer, outshooting the Huskies 11-3 in the first half behind seven Macias attempts.

The second half was more evenly played with NIU's best scoring chance coming with just more than 32 minutes left when Albert Levett was slow to unload a shot from the left side, allowing Gray to close the gap and make a game saving stop. 

IUPUI fought off danger for much of the second half until Macias added insurance in the 83rd minute on a brilliant strike. Ayala headed a clearance back to Macias, who angled a long distance bomb over Donnally for his third score of the season.

Despite facing a 9-3 disadvantage in corner kicks, the Jags outshot NIU 18-7 overall and 6-1 on frame. Gray was clean in his lone attempt for his first-ever clean sheet. 

"Any night you defend your penalty area the way that we did, you take pride in that," Barnett said. "Hopefully you have the opportunity to build on it moving forward. Every defender across the back line made big tackles."

"We were tired of losing. That was it, we were tired of losing," Macias said.

IUPUI will return to Summit League play this weekend when the Jaguars take on Omaha at 7:00 p.m. Central (8:00 p.m. Eastern). That match can be seen on IUPUIJags.com and live stats will be available right at kickoff.