INDIANAPOLIS - The IUPUI men's soccer team opened Horizon League play with an impressive 1-0 home victory over Wright State on Saturday (Sept. 11), giving the Jaguars back-to-back wins. Sophomore Rayan Choukri netted his first career goal in the first half for the winner and Lucas Morefield registered his second straight shutout in net for the victors. 

"I think that it's absolutely fantastic to get a result in the opening game of the Horizon League season. These games and these points mean so much. The thing I'm happiest about is we saw some confidence in individuals and in a collective group start to build as we got the result against Western Illinois," head coach Brian Barnett said. "Before the game, I talked to the about starting from that point and starting from that point of individual and collective confidence and go forward from there.

"(Today) we learned some really important lessons about how you win games in the Horizon League. It doesn't matter who you are or what your record is, these are going to be tightly contested matches and you're going to have to make big time plays defensively - whether that's your goalkeeper, whether that's clearing balls off your line or whether that's catching a couple of posts -  those moments are what it takes and you've got to find ways to battle back when momentum isn't going your way. And we did just that over the course of the entire game."

The Jags offense came when Choukri took a pass from Tylin Broaders and was able to angle a shot past WSU goalkeeper Sebastian Jimenez for the game's only goal, setting off a celebration among teammates in the endzone. Choukri had only been on the field for five minutes and Broaders had been on the field for less than a minute when the pair hooked up for the score. 

The IUPUI (2-1-1, 1-0 HL) defense came up with two monster stops in the first half, getting goaline clearances in the opening 45 minutes. In the 16th minute, Joe Kouadio had a shot on frame cleared away by Ethan Diedel out of harm's way. 

However, the play of the game came in the closing seconds of the first half when Ids Hannema got free on a quick counter. Hannema drove a shot past Morefield, but Gianni Catenacci slid into the mouth of the goal and blocked the shot for a team save. 

Wright State (1-3, 0-1 HL) was forced to chase a goal for the second half, doing so against a veteran and composed IUPUI defense. Morefield was equal parts lucky and good on a Harvey Slade restart, pushing the shot to his left and off the post for a corner kick.

Even after Chris Workman just missed an insurance tally in the 87th minute, the Jaguars were able to kill the game late in large part to the work of Choukri, Logan Finnegan and Kirezi Freddy. The group was able to maintain possession and drain time in the closing minutes as Wright State was unable to find footing against the Jaguars' defense. 

Wright State outshot IUPUI 19-13 and had a 6-4 edge on corner kicks, but saw Morefield made seven saves and the IUPUI defense record nine stops. Diedel, Tommy Patacca and Corey Goede continued to anchor the defensive group in front of Morefield, playing all 90 minutes on a day in which the temperatures crept into the low 80's. 

Finnegan, the reigning Horizon League Offensive Player of the Week, fired a team-high three shots and Jimenez finished with three saves. 

The win snapped an eight-game skid to Wright State and was IUPUI's first over the Raiders since 2010. It also marked IUPUI's third shutout in four matches to start the year as the Jaguars' defense has yielded just three goals in the season's first four games. 

Barnett's club will continue its Horizon League slate next Saturday (Sept. 18) when it faces UIC at 8:00 p.m. Eastern in Chicago. That match is slated to be broadcast on ESPN+.