Autumn Allison

autumn.allison@indystar.com

The Indy Eleven's home schedule for their inaugural season ended with a bang Saturday, and not just because of the fireworks. The Eleven defeated the San Antonio Scorpions 1-0 for their second home win, just a week after they shocked No. 1 Minnesota 2-0.

"We've been seeing this kind of evaluation of our team coming for the last three or four weeks, and it's nice to see these guys get rewarded for their work, for the game plan that we put out there and the guys have just executed," said Eleven coach Juergen Sommer.

While the Eleven (5-7-4) got the win in front of their 14th consecutive sellout crowd, the Scorpions (9-5-2) hold the series lead with a 3-2 shootout win on May 31 and a 2-0 home victory on Aug. 9.

Despite the Eleven's modest two-game home streak, the team's position in the standings leaves them out of the running for the postseason.

San Antonio has earned a slot in the NASL's four-team postseason tournament and will be fighting for a No. 1 or 2 seed in the final games of the regular season.

A scoreless first 45 minutes showcased the Eleven's revamped defense. Until recently, the defense had caused issues for Indy. The addition of a top defender like Corey Miller has helped shore up that area and limited opponents' chances.

"Over the last few games they haven't put a foot wrong," Sommer said. "They've worked extremely hard to get the results they have."

Ten minutes into the second half, the Eleven went on the offensive and scored the first and only goal of the night. Mike Ambersley drew out Scorpions keeper Daryl Sattler before crossing over to L.A. Galaxy loanee, Charlie Rugg, for his first goal here.

"I was looking to get a goal and break that non-goal streak," said Rugg, a forward.

Rugg's goal would be the only score of the night despite aggressive attacks from both teams, including 11 shots by the Scorpions.

"We knew what San Antonio was all about ... they kind of played the way we anticipated them to play," said Sommer. "They didn't really surprise us with much."

The shutout was goalkeeper Kristian Nicht's fifth overall, his third in a row.

"It's an old saying but you can't lose a game with a clean sheet," said Nicht. "So if you don't concede a goal, you definitely will not lose."

Starting with the Cosmos game at the beginning of October, the Eleven have been on an uptick that includes three clean sheets, two wins and a draw. That bodes well for not only the last two games of the season, but also looking forward to 2015.

"You can see they are getting more and more comfortable in this environment and getting better over the last three weeks for sure," Sommer said. "Hopefully a great snapshot of what we will look like going into next year with what we have accomplished here at the end of the year."

Follow Star reporter Autumn Allison on Twitter: @Aallison25.