HIGHLAND HEIGHTS, Ky. – Looking to win its fourth-straight match, Northern Kentucky men's soccer (3-1) ventures over to IUPUI (0-2) on Saturday at Michael A. Carroll Stadium in Indianapolis.    
    
NORTHERN KENTUCKY at IUPUI
Saturday, March 6 – 2:00 p.m. ET – Indianapolis, Indiana  
      
SERIES HISTORY    
IUPUI currently leads the series 4-3-3. The Jaguars defeated the Norse in the last matchup, 2-1, on Sept. 14, 2019.  
    
LAST TIME OUT    
The Norse are out to their best start in the Horizon League at 3-1 thanks to a double-overtime win over Cleveland State last week. NKU jumped out to an early lead with a goal from Tobias Karlsen in the seventh minute and led for much of the contest. The Vikings, however, had a large advantage in shots and finally found the back of the net in the 80th minute. After a first overtime that saw NKU garner no shot opportunities, freshman Ben Hegge found Brodie Sallows late in the second overtime for the golden goal, giving NKU the 2-1 result.  
 
SCOUTING IUPUI     
IUPUI is 0-2 to start the new season, suffering 2-0 and 2-1 setbacks to Purdue Fort Wayne and league-favorite UIC, respectively. Matthew Skaar has the lone goal of the season thus far, with Chris Workman on the assist for it. Another offensive player to watch outside of that duo is Gianni Cantenacci, who had a goal and four assists in the 2019 edition of the Jaguars. Quinn McCallion returns to IUPUI this season as its keeper. He had a 1.84 GAA and a .718 save percentage last season.  
 
YOU'RE NEW HERE? ME TOO! LET'S BE FRIENDS.   
It's a pair of newcomers that have led the Norse offense thus far. Dylan Bufton, a transfer from Tyler Junior College that had 14 goals in two years of action, had the lone goal in NKU's 1-0 win over Milwaukee on Feb. 10. Bufton followed the performance with another goal and an assist in NKU's 2-1 win over Oakland on Feb. 22. Sam Robinson, who joins NKU this season after a freshman campaign at Cincinnati, gave NKU a 1-0 lead against Detroit Mercy before the Norse ultimately fell, 2-1 on Feb. 4. He also had an assist in NKU's matchup with Cleveland State on Feb. 28.  
  
EVERY DAY IT GETS A LITTLE EASIER   
NKU's defense is vastly improved from a season ago. Through the first three games, the Norse gave up 38 shots, 18 shots on goal and six goals last season. NKU nearly-halved all of those metrics as they allowed 22 shots, eight shots on goal and three goals through the first three games of last season.    
  
UNFINISHED BUSINESS     
Three former Bearcats, all entering their sophomore campaigns after transferring in the offseason due to Cincinnati discontinuing its program, join the Norse with three years remaining in their respective soccer careers. Robinson, a forward, played in 16 games a year ago, logging 699 minutes and scoring his first-career goal versus Cleveland State on Oct. 9. Kyle Healy, a midfielder, also struck in a goal against Xavier on Sept. 6 to go along with an assist against Purdue Fort Wayne on Oct. 1. Finally, Hegge, another midfielder, appeared in 11 games for the Bearcats, seeing the pitch for 294 minutes.     

HORIZON LEAGUE PRESEASON POLL      
Northern Kentucky was selected to finish eighth in the 2020-21 edition of the Horizon League preseason poll with 48 points. UIC and Oakland both claimed the top-spot with 109 points, but the Flames garnered eight first-place votes compared to Oakland's three. Wright State rounded out the top three in the poll with 88 points.       
  
A YEAR AGO      
The Norse finished 7-10-1 and 3-5 in the conference play in 2019. NKU began the season with a strong exhibition showing against No. 8 Kentucky, tying the Wildcats, 0-0. The Norse also took down both Wright State, the eventual Horizon League Tournament Champions, and UIC, the holder of the regular-season crown. On Oct. 9, the Norse reached the back of the net an impressive 11 times en route to shutting out Berea, tying Syracuse for the most goals in a single game in Division I on the season.       
      
WHO ELSE WILL STEP UP?     
With 12 departures from last year's team, NKU is without its top-three goal-scorers this season. Ryan Godding, a midfielder, is the top returning-scorer with a pair of goals and three assists a year ago. NKU also returns Sallows, who had two goals and an assist last year, as well as all six goals in the lone spring-season match against Georgetown College before the COVID-19 Pandemic halted all NKU athletic programs.    
     
NEW YEAR, NEW NORSE      
Along with Bufton, Healy, Hegge, Karlsen and Robinson, seven other Norse are new additions this season: Deryn Armstrong, Roberto Burlew, Trey Denigan, Daniel Kaufman, Cam Newton, Jesse Randall and Andrés Zaffino.    
      
RIDDLE ME THIS     
Following a 1-13-4 season in 2016, Stu Riddle was hired to lead NKU's men's soccer program and the Norse have been 27-24-5 in the last four years. Riddle led NKU to a 10-7 showing in 2018, which is the highest win-mark in NKU's Division I era. Riddle is an 11-year head-coaching veteran, owning an 88-92-26 record. He is joined by assistants Blair Stevenson (fourth season) and Sam Brooks (third season).