Purdue Fort Wayne
IUPUI
'Dons Down Jaguars on Senior Night Shutout
11/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Nov. 7, 2008
Fort Wayne, IN -- IPFW brought out all the stops including eight key saves by senior keeper Michael Knitter on a season-concluding victory over in-state and Summit League rival IUPUI 1-0 in front of a season high 347 fans in attendance on senior night.
Knitter and Aaron Tulloch concluded their playing careers at IPFW with a victory over the Jaguars in exciting fashion.
IPFW started firing early taking five of the first seven shots within the first 12 minutes of the match. Casey Bowman took the first shot for the Mastodons wide right. The 'Dons first shot on goal was kicked by senior Aaron Tulloch and saved by IUPUI's Francisco Maia. Twenty one seconds later Casey Bowman headed a shot that was also kept by Maia.
The defensive stand of the match came in the 22nd minute when IUPUI's Eric Weigman kicked a shot from the right side which was deflected by a horizontal Knitter. Knitter then recovered and was able to block save yet another shot by the Jaguars Perez Agaba 13 seconds later.
The two teams continued to be scoreless until IPFW's Jorge Ramirez broke away from the keeper on the short side and netted a shot from 15 yards, parking it under the goal's top shelf.
The 'Dons finished with eight players taking shots and three taking shots on goal. Ramirez and Tulloch both had two shots on goal, while Bowman had one. Ramirez took a match high five shots while Tulloch kicked four. Colin Helmrich had three shots while Bowman and Chris Dolinski took two. Liridon Qafleshi, Max Touloute and Ben Haifley took one shot apiece.
The Mastodons played tough defense for the duration of the ugly match defending 11 of the Jaguar's shots. Knitter's eight saves is two shy of his season high and put the punctuation on his season during which he logged over 1,600 minutes, (26 hours), and finished with 89 saves and four shutouts.
The Mastodons wrapped up the 2008 campaign going 3-11-3 (1-3-2 Summit League) while developing a strong core of returning players including seven seniors to-be.
~Dons~
