DePauw University 2 - Austin College 1

We traveled to Indianapolis, IN on Thursday afternoon, arriving at the airport around 7:00pm. We then headed to the hotel, checked in, and then went to grab a bite to eat. This was going to be one of the toughest weekends this season in terms of travel and competition. Our Colorado trip was tough, but this was going to involve two nationally ranked teams, back to back.

We go up on Friday morning and went to a local park for a light kick-around and stretch. There was an FFA convention and hotels were hard to come by, so we stayed about 45 minutes away from the school. That afternoon we went to a local mall to walk around and eat our pregame meal. We then headed to campus for our 5:30pm kick-off.

The game started in a hurry, with DePauw having the better run of things right away. DePauw does a fantastic job with their interchange of their midfielders, and despite knowing about it, caused us problems to start. Just over three minutes in they would score as we just didn't sort things out soon enough. The guys didn't let this affect their mindset and immediately following we settled in and began to play. Our defensive unit on the night was fantastic coming off the goal and really organized and dealt with DePauw's attack. It is not a straight forward attack, and involves good communication, which we had. One of our problems this fall has been our willingness to attack with a purpose; get forward in numbers and go to goal. We didn't have that issue tonight and did a good job of getting behind DePauw's back line. Junior Miles Vaughn (Grapevine, TX) and John Martinez (Grapevine) ran the show in the midfield and did a good job of sorting out the transitions.

The score would remain DU 1-0 at the break.

The second half would continue much of the same and both sides would create some very good opportunities. Nearly 20 minutes into the half, Senior Lance Frank (Dallas, TX) was taken down around 25 yards out. Lance has really come on over the past few weeks and has created a spark for us up top. With the free kick, John Martinez, Austin Newman (Austin, TX), and Nathan Spradlin (Rockwall, TX) were on the ball and Nate would step-up and hit a fantastic free kick into the upper right corner for the game-tying goal. Nate has been a huge catalyst for our end of the season emergence of our quality of play, and tonight he kept that going.

For the next 15-20 minutes, the game was back and forth, as both teams pushed to get the go-ahead goal. Unfortunately for us, DePauw would find it with 5 minutes to play as a ball got through on the backside and was tuck in by a DU player. We then moved to 3 up top, and had a couple close chances, but the game would end with Austin College going down 2-1. Another tough loss.

A couple bright spots from the loss...the boys have continued to push themselves and work to improve, despite the record. This is a true testament of their character and would make a huge difference the next night. In addition, freshman Garrett Evans was extremely solid on the night and has poised himself to do good things in the future.