For 104 minutes in front of a partisan Wish Field crowd and a BIG EAST Digital Network audience, Jalen Harvey and his DePaul teammates played masterfully on defense against a Xavier team that was outscoring opponents 18-6.
And then in a flash, it was over when Calm Latham scored the golden goal in the 105th minute of a 1-0 loss in Double-Overtime.
DePaul goalkeeper Mack Robinson made four saves and was up to every challenge Xavier could muster until the very end.
A back line of Caleb Pothast, Anton Sell, Harvey, Hans Wustling and John Freitag disrupted the Xavier attack, clogged up the lanes and kept the dangerous chances to a minimum.
"Our defense is coming together at a fast pace and we have yet to plateau," Robinson said. "You could see it in our play today. Xavier is one of the best attacking teams in the country.
"The key is communication with the goalkeeper and the guys in the back line. If we can keep this up for the rest of the season, the future is bright."
And Robinson was happy with the offensive effort as well.
"Along with our defense, we played well on the offensive end," Robinson said. "Simon Megally, Erik Rodriguez and Jake Scheper had a lot of good combination plays."
Both DePaul and Xavier had their chances in regulation time and the first overtime. A pair of tight defenses had this match seemingly headed to a double-overtime draw.
"We made a change today putting me at center back and moving Jalen outside," Pothast said. "We played a great game and everybody fought for each other. Mack made some fantastic saves.
"The biggest thing is that we played together as one team. We were united as one team, and we had our chances to win."
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