INDIANAPOLIS – The 25th-ranked UIndy men's soccer team kicked off its season Thursday night with a 4-0 win over the Findlay Oilers. The Hounds took care of things on the defensive end, easing the workload for senior goal keeper Miles Palmer for his first clean sheet of the season. After tallying a single goal in the opening frame, the Hounds added three more in the second half to solidify the victory.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Scoring started early for the Hounds when freshman Alejandro Steinwascher picked up his first collegiate goal just 19 minutes into his college debut. Josh Mahon set up his teammate with the pretty feed to give the Hounds an early lead.
 
UIndy went into halftime with a 1-nil lead until 12 minutes into the second half when junior James Jenkins went right up the middle to score and increase the Greyhounds lead to 2-0 with a little over 30 minutes left to play. But Jenkins' night did not end there. The Liverpool native found himself in scoring position after Deo Moore found his teammate for his second goal of the evening in the 76th minute.
 
After a plethora of substitutes by head coach John Higgins, Deo Moore added to his point total, this time adding a goal to his stat sheet with fellow sophomore Jeremy Fechtman getting credit for the assist on the final score of the match.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
-Thursday night was James Jenkins' fourth multi-goal game of his Greyhound career, and the first Greyhound to have a multi-goal game in a season opener since at least 2005.
 
-After the shutout, Miles Palmer's now has 14 career shutouts between the pipes.
 
-The win over Findlay was head coach John Higgins' 92nd career win at his alma mater.

HOUND BYTES
Coach Higgins on team's execution in their first game, "I was really happy with our first half performance, we moved the ball really well and established ourselves in the game. Our problem in the first half was we did not get enough shots, we did not get enough on target, and did not test their goalkeeper enough. In the second half I was a little disappointed. Early on they pressed [us] and we panicked on the ball, fortunately we were clinical with our shot chances. We ended up getting really comfortable against a team that won 13 games against good teams last year. Delighted with the results, but, still a lot to work on moving forward."
 
Junior James Jenkins on his two-goal performance, "The boys were absolutely brilliant tonight, we worked day in and day out, on and off the field. We played really well in the preseason scrimmages and came back with three wins. We knew coming into tonight it was going to be a tough game, but we did what we had to do. All the goals tonight were things we had worked on and we hit the marks, it was an all-around great performance from the boys. Now we have to move on to Saturday's game against Ohio Dominican."
 
Freshman Alejandro Steinwascher on his first collegiate goal, "It was really cool, I had three in our preseason scrimmages so it made the game slow down for me a bit. My teammates made it really special for me, now I just want to go out and score more."

 
UP NEXT
UIndy travels to Ohio Dominican Saturday for an afternoon tilt against the Panthers at 12 pm EST.