DePaul University Athletics
Blue Demons Stunned in Loss to No. 17 Louisville
10/3/2009 12:00:00 AM | MEN'S SOCCER
CHICAGO - In the span of 16 minutes, DePaul had its soccer world turned upside-down.
That's how long it took No. 17 Louisville to score four goals Saturday en route to a 6-0 victory over the Blue Demons at Wish Field.
This was DePaul's worst loss since Aug. 31, 2002 when the Blue Demons were defeated 6-0 at No. 15 Portland.
On Saturday, Colin Rolfe scored just four minutes into the BIG EAST match, and DePaul nearly came up with an immediate retaliation when Alex Mangan just missed on a header after a precise crossing pass from Andre Gutierrez.
Then came the back-breakers for DePaul. Twice in the span of less than three minutes, Mark Knight scored from right in front of the Blue Demon net.
The first one, at the 13-minute, 52-second mark, was Knight's fourth of the season. The second one, at 16:47, was headed in during a scramble right in front of goalkeeper Joe Ferrari.
At 20:00, Paolo Delpiccolo ended the first-half flurry with a rebound goal in front of the net.
"It was a letdown against a very good team," said DePaul coach Craig Blazer, whose team fell to 5-5-0, 2-3-0 in the BIG EAST. "When you make those kinds of mistakes, you're going to get punished.
"Our defense was not ready to play today against this top caliber of competition. Our forwards were outplayed on headers.
"It's discouraging when you've got a good team, but you're slow to react."
Blazer and the Blue Demons opted to go with an offensive lineup against Louisville (6-1-2, 3-1-1) by using top scoring threats Mangan and Steffen Vroom together. That may have taken something away from DePaul's defense.
"For some reason, this game had a negative effect on our players," Blazer said. "Louisville's strengths and our weaknesses were completely revealed.
"This was a negatively defining moment for this group of seniors."
DePaul has been thriving on a newfound offense that has already scored more goals (16) than all of last season (13).
But on Saturday, that attack never got untracked as Louisville swarmed all over the Blue Demon defense.
DePaul looks to get back on the winning track Wednesday in a BIG EAST match at Cincinnati.
NOTES: Louisville outshot DePaul 13-3, including 8-2 in the first half... Mangan, Antonio Aguilar and Mark Plotkin each got off a shot for the Blue Demons... Knight and Rolfe had four shots apiece for the Cardinals... the physical Cardinals had 19 fouls called against them compared to 10 for DePaul... Louisville goalkeeper Andre Boudreaux only had to make one save---turning away Mangan's header.