As the rain persisted through the entire game at Boswell field, the offense of the University of Chicago (5-2) poured the pressure on DePauw's defense.
The No. 24 Chicago beat DePauw (3-4, 1-0 NCAC) by a score of 3-0 on Thursday night and outshot the Tigers 16-4. Of those four shots by DePauw, none of them were on target at the Chicago net.
Head coach John Carter was quick to not blame the loss on the rain, but rather the defensive miscues and chances his defense gave up to Chicago.
"We have to understand when, where and how to defend," Carter said. "When to stand them up and when you can win it. Chicago plays hard and physical but the goals we gave up are from things we let them create by where we gave them the ball."
The strength of the Chicago defenders and their quickness up front caused the DePauw defenders to struggle to hold their marks often succumbing to the slick conditions on the field.
"A lot of our backs were slip sliding on the way back and that disrupted our defense," said junior midfielder Kelly Reeves. "Cutting back is rough when you're sliding around. As the game went on, we got a bit better with that."
Down 1-0 at halftime, DePauw came out aggressively and created some early chances. As soon as the offense started to get into a rhythm and ball movement was steadily improving, Chicago launched an aggressive counter attack from which the DePauw defense was slow to cover.
"We came out in the second half, and we started to get that rhythm," Carter said. "We were in their half and then we gave up a counter goal. It kind of deflates you. We did work hard and we did get better, especially in the last 20 minutes."
Three minutes later, Chicago put up its third goal of the game just eight minutes into the half.
"Chicago is a really good team, but not too much better than us," Reeves said. "We deserve to play with them, and we broke down sometimes and we gave up some goals."
As play continued, the physicality of Chicago became apparent as they won numerous balls in the midfield and exerted their strength and size at will.
"They hustled," Reeves said. "They are big and physical and play hard. They play a similar game to what we play, and they found a ball through and we didn't."
Carter said the team performed well in the final 20 minutes of the game. Within that time, the Tigers played aggressively on their opponent's side of the field. The team was able to handle the odd bounces caused by the damp field and string together some chances in front of the goal.
"That's more of the way we want to play," Carter said of the final part of the game. "We were moving the ball, our backs were stepping up and getting involved. We were switching the point of attack and isolating. As well as we played up until that point, we still weren't dangerous in front of goal."
Playing at that level for the entire game is what Carter wants the team to take away from yesterday's loss. In those final 20 minutes, the Tigers played tougher and the soccer was "enjoyable," according to Carter.
"The thing I gave them tonight to ponder over for Saturday is that attitude and that effort has to be for 90 minutes," Carter said. "It makes it easier to defend. It was more of the off-the-ball support. When they got success, it was on us giving it away. We didn't get our outside backs tight enough and quick enough so they were able to exploit it."
The Tigers will be looking to build on defense for their weekend match against Hiram College (3-2). Last season, Hiram finished at the bottom of the conference with an in-conference record of 1-6. Look for the Tigers to exploit the developing Hiram team and bounce back from yesterday's disappointing performance.
— Ryan Foutty contributed to this article