Box Score

The University of Detroit Mercy men's soccer team (1-1-0) captured its first victory of the season as the Titans shut out IPFW (1-2-0), 1-0, Sunday afternoon at Hefner Stadium in Fort Wayne, IN.

The lone goal of the game came at the 52:07 mark as Detroit senior Nick Dreshaj (Clinton Twp., MI/Chippewa Valley) dished a pass from just outside the box to sophomore Otieno Victor (Kisumu Nyanza, Kenya/Kakamega). Victor then made his way through a few defenders and was to the right of Mastodon junior goalkeeper Donovan Dowling as he took his shot and Victor saw it go into the lower left corner of the net for his first career goal in a Titan uniform.

“I am so happy that my debut with Detroit happened on the same day that the Titans registered their first win of the season,” commented Victor. “I am proud that I helped make the victory possible by scoring the all-important goal, which also happened to be my first goal for UDM.”

Dreshaj had a chance to tack on an insurance goal for Detroit with 10 minutes left in the contest as he took a header from about 10 yards out, but the ball ended up taking a bounce over the keeper's head and then another bounce over the crossbar.

“We have players with good character that will work hard right until the end and their hard work paid off today,” said Detroit head coach Morris Lupenec. “We had some good chances and ended up with the result we were looking for since we were the better team. Hopefully we can build on this momentum when we travel out West next weekend where we will face Oregon State and Gonzaga.”

In the opening stanza, Detroit tallied seven total shots, four of which were taken by sophomore Sam Seppo (Port Huron, MI/Port Huron), while IPFW collected five. Two of those shots for the Titans were on goal, but Mastodon Dowling was able to stop both of Detroit freshman Kevin Pinkos' (Clarkston, MI/Clarkston) attempts.

UDM freshman netminder Brandon Waterstradt (Dearborn Heights, MI/Catholic Central) was in net the entire contest for the Titans and tallied three saves, while Dowling ended with five saves and allowed one goal.

The Titans outshot the Mastodons, 18-11, while IPFW had a 10-3 advantage in corner kicks.

Detroit's next two contests will take place at the Gonzaga Tournament, with the first match-up happening against Oregon State on Friday at 4:30 p.m. EST.