Box Score Butler continued its strong start to the 2016 season by blanking SIUE, 2-0, Saturday evening at the Butler Bowl in Indianapolis. The Bulldogs dominated possession in the contest, out-shooting the visiting Cougars, 18-7. With the win, Butler is now 2-0-1 on the young season, while SIUE falls to 0-1-2.

It was a meaningful match for the Bulldogs, who were looking to avenge a loss to SIUE from midway through the 2015 campaign. They met their objective on a beautiful night in the Circle City.

In the 26^th minute, Marco Charalambous fired two consecutive shots that were blocked by Cougar defenders. The second shot was collected by freshman Isaac Galliford on the left side of the goal. He scored into the right corner of the net for the first Butler goal of his career.

The teams went into the intermission with that 1-0 Butler lead. The Bulldogs held a 13-3 advantage in shots in the opening 45 minutes, in addition to a 4-1 edge in corner kicks.

SIUE would increase possession in the second half, but was unable to get a shot off until the closing minutes. One SIUE chance sailed just high. The Bulldogs searched for an insurance goal as the clock ticked down and the Cougars applied pressure.

The Bulldogs found that insurance goal in the 89^th minute as Charalambous took a short pass from Jared Timmer, took a touch to the top of the 18-yard box and curved a shot around the SIUE keeper and into the right corner.

Junior goalie Eric Dick posted his second shutout through three matches, turning away SIUE's only shot on goal. He did face five second-half corner kicks by the Cougars.
Galliford (six), Charalambous (five) and Goldsmith (four) accounted for 15 of Butler's 18 shots on the evening.

Butler travels to Akron, Ohio next week for a pair of neutral site matches. The Bulldogs will meet UC-Santa Barbara on Friday. Butler received votes in last week's Top 25 poll, while UCSB is ranked tenth in the country. Oregon State is Sunday's opponent.