University of Detroit Mercy Athletics

The Detroit Titans will host UIC in a Horizon League match-up Saturday at noon in what is UDM's final men's soccer game of the 2009 campaign, as well as senior day for Nick Dreshaj (Clinton Twp., MI/Chippewa Valley) and Ali Youssef (Canton, MI/Plymouth).

Detroit (4-12-1, 1-6 HL) is coming off a 3-2 overtime victory at Bowling Green this past Wednesday where Dreshaj scored two goals, Youssef earned an assist, along with sophomore Otieno Victor (Kisumu Nyanza, Kenya/Kakamega). Senior Ken Simon (Brighton, MI/Brighton) scored the game-winning goal in the 98th minute with help from sophomore Nate Robinson (Novi, MI/Novi) and Victor.

Dreshaj and Victor both lead Detroit in goals (4) and points (10), while three players have dished out three assists each in Simon, Robinson and freshman Kevin Pinkos (Clarkston, MI/Clarkston). Freshman Martin Robertson (Newmarket, ON/St. Andrew's College) started in his first collegiate game on Wednesday and tallied nine saves, while allowing two goals during the entire contest.

Most recently, UIC (6-5-6, 3-2-2) was edged by #24 Butler in Chicago, 1-0, on Nov. 4 and the last win for the Flames came at Loyola (Oct. 24) by an overtime score of 2-1. Freshman Ivan Stanisavljevic leads the Flames in goals and points with seven and 14, respectively, while junior Charlie Trout, senior Mike Giffin and senior Zach Tierney have each earned two assists thus far this season.

Detroit owns a 6-8-3 overall record against UIC, which includes a 2-0 setback for the Titans last year on Sept. 28 in Chicago. The last time the Flames played in Detroit, the game ended in a scoreless tie (Oct. 7, 2007) and the last time UDM defeated UIC was on Sept. 25, 2005 by an overtime score of 3-2 on the Flames' home field.

Both Dreshaj and Youssef will be honored prior to kick-off for all of their hard work and dedication to the Titan soccer program.