Denver 2-0 Bryant (Underwood 6’, Elder 50’)

DENVER – Sophomore striker Andre Shinyashiki (Sao Paulo, Brazil) assisted goals to junior midfielder Alex Underwood (Winnetka, Ill.) in the sixth minute and redshirt junior Blake Elder (Fort Worth, Texas) in the 50^th minute to send the [11/13] University of Denver men’s soccer team to a 2-0 win over visiting Bryant on Sunday night at CIBER Field at the University of Denver Soccer Stadium.

“To only give up one shot (on goal, two overall), I think defensively, we played very well tonight,” second-year head coach Jamie Franks said. “We pressed high up the field the way we wanted to and were able to force a lot of mistakes. From front to back, we were quite disciplined in our shape tonight.

“Our attacking guys had our two goals. Those are the guys that we want to be dynamic in the attack, and they are really starting to find their form, and work well together.”

In the victory, Denver kept its second cleansheet of the season and its 36th since Franks arrived to Denver as an assistant coach ahead of the 2012 campaign.

Underwood scored his third of the season after Shinyashiki was able to get free down the right and serve a ball to the feet of the junior who finished from 12 yards out.

Elder’s second in as many matches came within five minutes of the start of the second half as the Air Force transfer stuck a Shinyashiki delivery across the face of goal and into the bottom left corner to double Denver’s advantage.

The Pioneers outshot Bryant 11-2 on the night, and took all seven corners in the 90 minutes.

Goalkeeper Nick Gardner (Marvin, N.C.) made a single save in his fourth career shutout, and was one of two players to play 90 minutes in the Denver Sunday night victory. DU had 18 players see action in the victory that extended Denver’s season-opening unbeaten stretch to six matches.

“We played a lot of guys tonight and were able to demonstrate our depth without the level of play dropping off,” Franks said. “There are a lot of guys that have been working hard, so to be able to reward those guys and keep them in form is important, because we’ll need them as the year goes on.”

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