DePaul University Athletics
DePaul's Defense Makes a Stand
10/10/2009 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S SOCCER
CHICAGO - Steffen Vroom is a stand-up kind of guy, and on Saturday, he was the first one to downplay his second straight game-winning goal.
"I'd have to give this one to the defense and our goalie, Joe Ferrari," Vroom said about the 1-0 victory over Rutgers at Wish Field. "Our offense really didn't do much today, and it was the defense that won the game."
Ferrari made five saves and came up with some big plays in posting his second shutout of the season. The freshman from Mundelein has given up just one goal in the last two games.
Helping form a protective pocket around Ferrari was the Blue Demon back line of Nathan Feltz, John Jandl, Patrick Hopkins and Scott Freundlich.
Together, they helped Ferrari turn away eight Rutgers shot attempts and a number of crossing opportunities.
"Sometimes when you get a 1-0 lead, you do sit back just a little," said DePaul coach Craig Blazer as DePaul (7-5-0, 4-3-0 in the BIG EAST) was outshot 5-1 in the second half. "We tried to get that second goal, but give credit to Rutgers (5-6-0, 3-4-0) for a good defense and goalkeeper."
DePaul scored the only goal at the 27-minute, 16-second mark when Alex Mangan set up Vroom right in front of the Scarlet Knight net.
"Alex gave me a nice pass, and I realized I was one-on-one with the goalkeeper," Vroom said. "It's hard not to get too excited. But I remained calm and just tapped it in."
It was Vroom's sixth goal of the season, and it came just three days after his game-winner in Wednesday's 2-1 overtime victory at Cincinnati.
"You learn that forwards score in streaks," Vroom said. "I've been in the right place at the right time lately. I guess you could say I'm in a hot streak right now."
Rutgers kept trying to free up leading scorers Yannick Salmon and Ibrahim Kamara for shot opportunities in the second half.
"They kept throwing their best players at us, and our back line did a very good job on them," Blazer said. "They used long throws and corner kicks, but defense kept clamping down on them."
The Blue Demons are revving up their game for the stretch run of their final six matches.
"We feel like we need to win out to give ourselves a good chance to qualify for the BIG EAST tournament and to be in consideration for an NCAA tournament berth," Vroom said. "We've had some big wins, but also some bad losses.
"In these final games, we need to show the rest of the country we're not a fluke team."
NOTES: DePaul managed only four shots against Rutgers, one each by Vroom, Mangan, Andre Gutierrez and Matt Leinauer... only Vroom's shot was on goal... Antonio Aguilar sat out the first half after getting banged up in the Cincinnati game, but played the entire second half... Erich Reichmann missed his second game because of an injury... Vroom leads the Blue Demons in goals with six and points with 13... Mangan is second in goals with four and in points with nine... DePaul, which is 4-2 away from Wish Field, travels to Loyola Soccer Park on Wednesday for a match against the Ramblers.
