DePaul University Athletics
DePaul Travels to UAB
10/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S SOCCER
CHICAGO - Winners of three straight, the DePaul men's soccer team travels to UAB for a Saturday evening match with the Blazers. Following their 2-1 victory over Cincinnati on Wed., the Blue Demons stand at 5-5-2 overall and 2-2-0 in Conferecne USA. UAB enters the match at 6-3-3 and 2-1-2.
Looking at the Blue Demons
DePaul has won three straight since snapping a four-match winless streak... five wins is the most since the 1999 squad won seven times... offensively, six players have found the net... Luke Rojo leads the squad with four goals while Edwin Arreola has three scores... Jonathan Foley, Adam Hermsen and Anthony Minniti have scored twice... Tim Blake has a goal and two assists... three of Rojo's four goals have been game-winners... Bob Kruse leads the club with three assists while Blake, Foley and Hermsen have a pair... the Blue Demons have been outscored, 22-15, through 12 matches... DePaul is 1-0-1 in overtime matches, 4-1-0 in one-goal games and 3-0-0 in home matches... Rojo and Foley were named to the All-Tournament team at the Coca-Cola Panther Invitational... Rojo earned Conference USA All-Freshman team honors last season... Foley and Kruse are team captains in 2002... after opening the season with nine straight road matches, the Blue Demons play seven of the final 10 regular-season matches at Wish Field... head coach Craig Blazer is in his first season without the "interim" tag.
Streaking
DePaul's three-game win streak is the longest since winning three straight in 1999... the last time the Blue Demons won four consecutive matches was a streak during the 1995 season... the program's best winning streak occurred in 1994 when DePaul won five consecutive matches.
Looking at the Blazers
UAB enters Saturday's match at 6-3-3 overall and 2-1-2 in C-USA action... the Blazers are undefeated in their last five matches, posting a 3-0-2 record over that span... last weekend, they knocked off TCU, 4-0... 11 players have scored at least once... Flavio Monteiro leads the club with 10 points on four goals and two assists... Mike Getman is in his 11th season as head coach with the Blazers... the series: UAB leads the all-time series, 8-2-1... a year ago, UAB won, 4-0, at Wish Field... DePaul last win came on a 3-1 decision in 1992.
Last Time Out - DePaul 2, Cincinnati 1
The DePaul Blue Demons knocked off the Cincinnati Bearcats, 2-1, on Wednesday afternoon at Wish Field. The win was the team's third straight and improved their record to 5-5-2 overall and 2-2-0 in Conference USA play. At Wish Field, the Blue Demons are undefeated at 3-0-0.
DePaul had some early opportunities and capitalized when Edwin Arreola's header from the top of the penalty box went over Bearcat keeper Sacha Nathu's hands and into the net. Jonathan Foley started the play with a pass to Kevin Bissett on the left sideline. Bissett sent the ball into the box, which Arreola sent home for his third goal of the season at 13:25. Just over 10 minutes later, the Blue Demons struck again in similar fashion. In the 26th minute, Anthony Minniti lofted the ball over Nathu from 25 yards off a pass from Tim Blake. For Minniti, it was his second score of the season.
At 29:58, Cincinnati's Wiremu Patrick cut the DePaul lead to 2-1 with his seventh goal of the year. Sean Connor found Patrick on the right side and Patrick sent it past DePaul keeper Michael Timlin.
From that point, neither team found the net as the Bearcats outshot the Blue Demons, 12-8. Timlin finished the match with three saves. Cincinnati's best opportunity came in the first five minutes of the second half as Scott Lyons hit the crossbar on a header.
Nothing But the Best
A quick look at the 2002 schedule reveals five opponents (No. 7 Washington, No. 10 UAB, No. 11 Saint Louis, No. 15 Portland, No. 17 UW-Milwaukee) that were ranked in the preseason top 25 by Soccer America. Of those five, the Blue Demons opened their season at three of those ranked squads.
Up Next
Next week, the Blue Demons play a pair of home matches against Loyola-Chicago on Oct. 23 and TCU on Oct. 26. Kickoff with the Ramblers on Wednesday is at 3 p.m.