The first official sporting event of the 2024-25 school year is in the books and it marked a new beginning for Purdue Soccer. The program has fallen on tough times after reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament in 2021. Purdue has not won a Big Ten game since October 31, 2021, and that led to the departure of Drew Roff after last season.

Enter Richard Moodie, who came to the program from South Alabama, where he was 91-36-19 in seven seasons. On Thursday night at Folk Field Purdue opened its season with the now annual Boiler Gold Rush game, and the Moodie era started with a nice 1-0 win over Washington State.

Purdue started the game strong with three shots on goal in the first 10 minute, but all were turned aside by goalkeeper Nadia Cooper. Cooper kept the Cougars in the game all evening long with a total of nine saves. She was able to keep a clean sheet until the 76th mniute when Gracie Dunaway was able to hit the back of the net on an assist from Sydney Boudreau.

Purdue's Emily Edwards had three saves as she earned a shutout in her first appearance for Purdue after transferring from Pitt. Purdue controlled the match throughout, allowing just one corner kick and seven total shots.

The goal was the 15th goal of Dunaway's career, and she tied for the team lead with three last year as Purdue scored just 18 times.

Purdue travels to Indianapolis on Sunday for game 2 against Butler. Next weekend Purdue hosts Loyola-Chicago and Illinois-Chicago before going to DePaul on August 29. Dayton comes to Purdue on Septembr 1 and No. 20 Alabama comes to Purdue on September 5.

The expanded Big Ten schedule begins on September 12 at Northwestern. The Big Ten slates features visits from No. 23 USC and No. 11 UCLA in mid-September and No. 13 Michigan State in the regular season finale.

Boiler Upload is an affiliate partner with Homefield Apparel, a premium collegiate apparel brand based in Indianapolis. They feature licensed vintage designs for over 150 different colleges and universities from the Colorado School of Mines all the way to most of the Big Ten. This, of course, includes Purdue. I can speak from experience that their Purdue line is fabulous, including the awesome 1967 Rose Bowl retro tee. Visit Homefield and use code BOILERUPLOAD for a discount on their unique designs.