DePaul’s defense has been the story in their first three games of the season, but against Drake on Monday, the Blue Demons’ attack exploded for three goals—which was good enough to defeat the Bulldogs 3-0 at Wish Field.

In their first three games this season, DePaul scored a combined three goals and had to rely on their defense to deliver them to wins. On Monday, however, not only was the Blue Demons’ defense limiting chances for Drake, their offense was creating a plethora of chances throughout the game. 

“That’s kind of the development of the team, each game you get a little better and today we showed a lot more of what we can do in attack,” DePaul head coach Mark Plotkin said. “I think we’ve had chances in other games, but we just haven’t put them on frame. Today we were in the right spots to execute and the guys did a fantastic job.”

The Blue Demons nearly got off to a great start in the opening minutes of the game when freshman Michael Anderson sent a header just wide of the net. DePaul would continue pressing the Bulldogs in the early stages of the match, but for the 10 minutes of the match couldn’t find the right pass in the final third. 

Just past the 10th minute, the Blue Demons won a corner kick and saw sophomore Jake Fuderer deliver a ball into the box that eventually found the head of his fellow sophomore, Youssef Ramadan, who leaped up over the defenders, scoring the opening goal of the game.

The Blue Demons rallied off a total of four shots in the first half and took a 1-0 lead into the break. When the two teams came out for the start of the second half, it was pretty much the same with DePaul bringing the more dangerous chances on offense. 

With all the chances that DePaul created through the passing movements, it was a curling free-kick goal from senior Zach El-Shafei that doubled the Blue Demons’ lead in the 50th minute. 

“We were 1-0 up and at halftime we told each other to score more goals to secure the win and those type of situations you work on in training all the time, so we’ve all been working on our free-kicks a lot,” El-Shafei said after the game. “So, it just paid off.” 

While it took nearly 40 minutes of game time for the Blue Demons to score their second goal of the game, it took them just three minutes to score their third goal of the game. Fuderer, who was already sitting on one assist for the game, played in a low cross from the left wing that connected with sophomore Jacob Seeto at the back post, sealing the win for DePaul at home. 

“I think the team did well; obviously I’m delighted to get two assists, as I’m trying to help the team out as much as I can,” Fuderer said. “I think we were all on board today with our combinations, between our set-pieces, Zach’s beautiful free-kick, I just think we are all on board.” 

Those three goals proved to be more than enough for the Blue Demons, which helped them secure their third win of the season. While Drake ended up taking more shots in the game, 9-7, DePaul beat them in shots on goal, 5-1. 

The Blue Demons return to action Friday, when they travel up north to face their Red-Line Rival Loyola.