Iowa soccer started its 2021-22 campaign with two victories on the road.

The Hawkeyes defeated DePaul, 2-1, Thursday in Chicago, and No. 21 Saint Louis, 1-0, in Missouri.

On Thursday, DePaul struck first in the third minute of the game as the Blue Demons corralled a corner kick to get the ball past redshirt junior goalkeeper Monica Wilhelm.

The Hawkeyes regrouped after the Blue Demons struck and created more offensive positions, leading to freshman forward/midfielder Kenzie Roling scoring her first career goal as a Hawkeye.

Just under two minutes before the first half expired, senior forward Alyssa Walker — a graduate transfer from Richmond — scored the first goal of her Hawkeye career to give Iowa a 2-1 lead.

Wilhelm faced seven shots — including five in the second half — against the Blue Demons and saved three. DePaul got a final chance off a corner kick in the 89th minute, but Wilhelm saved the deflected ball.

The Hawkeyes displayed their aggressiveness against the Blue Demons throughout the 90 minutes with 13 fouls. Iowa also had 11 shots, including four on goal.

“Today was a good start to the season for many reasons,” head coach Dave DiIanni said in a Thursday release. “We challenged our group to play on a difficult field in a tough environment and they performed admirably. To start the game giving up a goal in the first two minutes created an adversity we weren’t prepared for, however the team didn’t panic and instead stayed the course. These are the types of games that a team needs to grow through adversity.”

In Sunday’s game against Saint Louis, Roling notched the sole goal of the match in the 10th minute. The Hawkeyes garnered a total of 13 shots, and senior midfielder Hailey Rydberg led Iowa with four shots.

The Hawkeye defense held steady on Sunday afternoon, as the Billikens had only one shot on goal, which was saved by Wilhelm.

“Winning on Sunday is always a difficult task at this level, but it makes it more challenging playing a very successful program like Saint Louis,” DiIanni said in a Sunday release. “We spoke a lot about trying to dictate the tempo of the game, needing to pick when to slow it down and when to speed it up. I couldn’t have asked for my team to do anything more today.

RELATED: Iowa soccer set to kick of 2021-22 season with two-game road trip

BIG PICTURE

Following a 2020-21 season where the Hawkeyes didn’t score a goal until their seventh game, Iowa’s new forwards are making a difference.

Roling has scored a goal in the first two games of her career, and the Hawkeyes outshot their oppenents in both games.

Walker leads the team with seven shots, and Rydberg has two assists.

WILHELM STARTS AT GOALKEEPER

Wilhelm was benched in the middle of the 2020-21 season for then-freshman Macy Enneking.

Now, Wilhelm has started the first two games in 2021 — on FloFC’s broadcast of Thursday’s DePaul game, the announcers mentioned Enneking was out because of injury.

Unlike 2020-21 when the Hawkeyes lost all seven games Wilhelm started, Iowa is 2-0 so far this season.

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes have their home opener against Iowa State this Thursday — the match starts at 6 p.m. on BTN.

The Cyclones are 1-1 on the season, including a 2-0 win at UC-Santa Barbara on Thursday and a 2-1 loss at California State University, Northridge, on Sunday.

Iowa didn’t play the annual Cy-Hawk game against Iowa State in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Hawkeyes and Cyclones last met two seasons ago, resulting in an Iowa win, 2-1, at the Iowa Soccer Complex.

Hawkeye forward Courtney Powell, a graduate transfer from Iowa State, will play against the Cyclones for the first time in Black and Gold.