CHICAGO - Riding back-to-back victories, the IUPUI men's soccer team will head to Chicago on Saturday (Sept. 18) to face UIC (2-2-2, 0-1 HL) at Flames Field at 7:00 p.m. Central (8 Eastern). The Jags opened Horizon League play with a 1-0 shutout win over Wright State last weekend as redshirt sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Morefield delivered a career-high seven saves. It marked his second straight shutout and the IUPUI defense achieved its third shutout in four games to start the season. 

Sophomore Rayan Choukri tallied the game's only goal off assists from Tylin Broaders and Kirezi Freddy in the game's 30th minute. IUPUI was outshot 19-13, but was opportunistic in its attempts in getting the winner. The Jags also won at Western Illinois on Sept. 3 as Morefield dialed up a shutout and sophomore Logan Finnegan netted a penalty kick late in regulation to spark the win. 

Both Finnegan and Morefield have collected #HLMSOC Player of the Week honors already this season in fueling the early season success. 

Senior midfielder Cameron Haegele also has an early season score while Finnegan leads the team with six shot attempts. Tommy Patacca and Corey Goede have anchored the defensive line while Ethan Diedel and Gianni Catenacci have also started all four matches on the back line. 

While IUPUI has been outshot by more than 10 shots per contest, the goalkeeping duo of Morefield and Quinn McCallion have combined to notch a 0.71 goals against average and 19 saves for an .864 save percentage. 

QUOTABLE
"(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," head coach Brian Barnett said after the Jaguars' win over Wright State. 

PRESEASON POLLS
IUPUI was picked to finish 11th in the Horizon League according to the preseason poll released on Tuesday (Aug. 24): Read More

PROBABLE XI (based on the last outing)
GK- Lucas Morefield, Soph.
D- Gianni Catenacci, 5th
D- Ethan Diedel, Sr.
D- Corey Goede, Sr.
D- Tommy Patacca, 5th
MF- Logan Finnegan, Soph.
MF- Cameron Haegele, 5th
MF- Luke Liljegren, Jr. 
MF- Carson Shrader, Jr.
MF- Chris Workman, Jr.
F- Riley Shives, Sr.

SCOUTING THE FLAMES
UIC is 2-2-2 to start the year and 0-1 in Horizon League play after a road loss at Milwaukee. The Flames are 1-0-1 at home this season with a scoreless draw against Northwestern and a 3-0 win over Houston Baptist. UIC also has a road win at DePaul and earned a draw at No. 16 Saint Louis earlier this season. Bukola Abdulwahab leads the UIC attack with two goals and two assists while Younes Dayekh has two goals, including a game-winner. UIC has outscored foes by an 8-7 margin and gotten goals from six different scorers this year. In goal, Andres Vasquez has played all 580 minutes in net with a 1.09 goals against average and 25 saves in six contests. 

ALL-TIME SERIES
IUPUI is 0-4-2 all-time against UIC and 0-2-1 in the three meetings in Chicago. Series History

UP NEXT
IUPUI will host Bellarmine in non-conference play on Tuesday, Sept. 21 at 7:00 p.m. at Carroll Stadium. That contest will be broadcast on ESPN+ as Greg Rakestraw is on the call. In addition, tickets will be available on-site or in advance by contacting the IUPUI ticket office.