FORT WAYNE – The IPFW men’s soccer team didn’t walk away with a victory Sunday, but it felt like one to the Mastodons.
IPFW played Duke, the No. 23 team in the nation, to a 1-goal draw at Hefner Fields.
Consider it a victory for the Summit League squad, even if the scoreboard didn’t show it and even if it was an exhibition as part of the Shindigz National Soccer Festival.
“This is a big deal,” said Mastodons senior Max Touloute, whose team was 2-13-2 last year, including 0-5-1 in the conference.
“We’ve played big games like this in this showcase before and we often get beat like 4-0 or 4-1. This year, we actually got a result, so it’s actually looking good for the season coming up.”
The Mastodons had a bevy of unrealized scoring chances in the first half Sunday.
Freshman Alex Stronczek’s shot sailed over the net in the 14th minute, and freshman Darnell Parris’ header went wide of the post in the 31st minute.
The Mastodons may have come up empty early, but the Blue Devils didn’t with senior Daniel Tweed-Kent taking freshman Andrew Morales’ cross and sending it inside the left goalpost in the 36th minute for a 1-0 lead.
“In the first half, we should have been up three or four, but we didn’t finish,” Touloute said. “It was our first game, but we had a lot of chances.”
Finally, in the 51st minute, the Mastodons got their goal. Freshman Jason Mills took a shot from inside the penalty area, which was stopped by senior goalkeeper Jan Trnka-Amrhein, but Mills got the rebound and sent it inside the left goalpost.
“We have a lot of new freshmen coming in that will give us depth that we didn’t have the last couple of years,” Touloute said. “That’s going to be good for us.”
IPFW coach Mike Harper also said the team’s eight freshmen will help this season.
“We definitely brought in a great freshmen class,” Harper said. “And with the returners, we have a pretty solid team this year.”
The Blue Devils, who were 10-6-4 last season, played to a 1-goal draw with No. 17 Indiana on Friday night at Hefner Fields.
“As you can see, Duke is a top-20 team, and we were able to stick with them,” Touloute said. At first, they didn’t play their starters, but they were in at the end of the game and we still had chances going at them. I feel like we’re going to dominate the conference, based on this type of result.
“If we would have finished off more of our chances in the first half, we would have killed them.”
Harper’s enthusiasm was a little more tempered, but he knew that playing well against Duke should give his team confidence as it prepares for the regular season.
“It’s not every day that we get to play a top-10 or top-20 program, and we’ll take the result, absolutely,” Harper said.
