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Nov. 7, 2009

Box Score |  Photo Gallery 1  |  Photo Gallery 2 

Louisville, Ky. - The No. 5/7 Louisville men's soccer team advanced past the DePaul Blue Demons on penalty kicks 3-2 after a 1-1 double overtime tie on Saturday evening in Cardinal Park. Louisville improves to 13-2-3 overall and 8-2-1 in BIG EAST play. DePaul drops to 8-9-3 overall and 5-6-0 in league play.

"It was exciting," said head coach Ken Lolla. "As I told our guys, there will be days where it doesn't necessarily go your way especially around the goal. We weren't as clean as we could have been. We had a lot of opportunities where we didn't take them quite as well as we could have. But playing in a tournament, whether it's the BIG EAST tournament or the NCAA tournament, it's all about getting to the next round and how you play doesn't really matter as much as getting to the next round. We did what we needed to today to put ourselves in the position to still win the tournament."

The Cardinals came out pressuring early in the first half, keeping the ball on the DePaul side of the field and getting the first corner kick of the game. At one point in the first half, the Cardinals had three straight corner kicks off deflections and came up with seven corners before the 15 minute mark. Senior Freddie Braun took the ball baseline and struck it across the box to senior Gerardo Chavez, who headed it past the goalkeeper for the first score of the game in the 15th minute

Louisville finished the half with an 8-1 shot advantage, with two shots on goal and an 11-2 corner kick advantage. DePaul goalkeeper Joe Ferrari finished the first period with two saves.

The Cardinals came out in the second half with not as much fire which led to a shot on goal from DePaul's Steffen Vroom and the Blue Demons followed close after with a goal by Andre Gutierrez. The goal came after an Andre Boudreaux save that was rebounded by Gutierrez in the 52nd minute. The Cardinals and the whole crowd at Cardinal Park thought they had another goal when Kenney Walker launched a ball into the box that was deflected by the DePaul goalkeeper and rebounded by Josh Lipka sending it past Ferrari, but Lipka was called offsides negating the goal for the Cardinals.

The game ended in a 1-1 tie in regulation going into overtime. The game was very much equal after no one scored in the first overtime, without even a shot on goal by either team. In the second overtime, the only shot on goal was by Othaniel Yanez, which was saved by Ferrari. After the game ended in a tie, the teams go into a shootout for advancement in the BIG EAST Tournament.

The Cardinals were the first team to step into the box for the shootout. Freshman Paolo DelPiccolo nailed his first shot right past Ferrari. Patrick Hopkins was first up for the Blue Demons, Boudreaux made a great leaping save to stop the shot. Junior Mark Knight stepped up next and sent one past the keeper to the back of the net. Mark Plotkin was able to get the next shot past Boudreaux. Senior Phil Edginton's shot was saved by Ferrari. Willy Lara's shot was saved by Boudreaux. JT Murray's shot was good and DePaul Steffen Vroom connected as well. Going into the last shots for both teams, the Cardinals sent Braun to take theirs and his shot sailed high and wide to the right. The pressure fell upon the shoulders of Boudreaux to save the day and he proved he could do it. Nathan Feltz took the shot for DePaul and Boudreaux leaped across the goal, collecting the ball to save the victory. Louisville advanced with a 3-2 penalty kick advantage.

Louisville finished the overtime with a 23-7 shot advantage and a 20-5 corner kick advantage. Boudreaux finished with two saves and Ferrari finished with six saves.

Louisville will advance to the semifinals of the BIG EAST Tournament to take on either Notre Dame or South Florida, which will be decided on Sunday, Nov. 8. The Cardinals will travel to Morgantown, W.Va. for the BIG EAST Semifinals on Nov. 13 at 5:30 p.m.