CHARLESTON, Ill. – Redshirt-freshman Ryan Schaefer (Burien, Wash.) opened his collegiate account in the first half and the [8/9] University of Denver men’s soccer team kept its sixth cleansheet of the season to give Denver its ninth win of 2016, a 1-0 result over Eastern Illinois on Saturday afternoon at Lakeside Field.

“To get back to our identity of keeping shutouts and giving up a limited number of chances to our opponents was important for our group today after last weekend,” head coach Jamie Franks said. “I’m very happy with our performance from that standpoint. We created enough chances this afternoon to make the game easier on ourselves, but we just weren’t efficient with those chances. It’s always a tough road trip to get out here to Eastern Illinois, but our guys were business like today and didn’t let that affect them.”

Denver (9-0-2, 2-0-0) is now unbeaten in its last 28 regular season matches, dating back to Halloween, 2014.

Schaefer netted the match’s only goal in the 26^th minute of his 10^th CAP and just his third shot as a Pioneer. Schaefer’s goal was setup by assists from Alex Underwood (Winnetka, Ill.) and Blake Elder (Fort Worth, Texas). Underwood was credited with his 10^th career assist while Elder earned his first assist in a Crimson and Gold kit and his seventh collegiate assist overall.

The Pioneers controlled the possession and the chances in the opening 45 minutes, outshooting the home side 8-1 in the first half, putting three of those eight shots on target including the shot Schaefer put into the back of the net. Denver also took the only two corner kicks of the first 45.

Sophomore Andre Shinyashiki (Sao Paulo, Brazil) took two of the three shots in the second half, with redshirt-senior Karsten Hanlin (Centennial, Colo.) taking a late free kick for the third.

The Crimson and Gold allowed just one shot in the match, less than a month after Denver held [-/RV] Saint Louis without a shot on September 15.

Up Next:

Denver heads to Indiana next week for a pair of matches. DU will take on IUPUI on Friday in its third Summit League match of the campaign, three days before taking on nationally ranked Butler on the Indianapolis campus.

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