The No. 5 Georgetown men’s soccer team (6-1-4, 1-0-1 Big East) will go on the road to play the DePaul Blue Demons (4-5-2, 1-1-0 Big East) on Saturday, in what will be its third of nine Big East games this season. After tying Marquette 0-0 last Saturday, the Hoyas will look to get back on the winning path by replicating last year’s performance against DePaul when they routed the Blue Demons 6-0.

Then-senior forward Steve Neumann had a hat trick in that game, with the remaining goals scored by junior defender Cole Seiler, sophomore forward Brett Campbell and senior midfielder and co-captain Tyler Rudy. This year’s game will mark the first time that any current member of the team has travelled to Chicago to play DePaul.

Rudy is wary of the challenging playing conditions at Wish Field.

“I think [the hardest part will be] the atmosphere and their use of their home field,” Rudy said. “We are not used to the turf and [the field] being that small. I have never played at DePaul in my career so I know none of the guys have. That will be the biggest challenge: getting used to playing at their home stadium.”

Wish Field is an artificial turf field, a surface to which most college soccer players are not accustomed, and it is smaller in dimensions than Georgetown’s Shaw Field. The field is also surrounded by tall buildings and a train track, which pose potential distractions for the players.

“It is a different venue. It is in the city, there is the L train that goes right next to it. I think the [Georgetown] women literally hit a train with a soccer ball when we played there a couple weeks ago … It feels like a cage match,” Head Coach Brian Wiese said.

In part because of its unique home-field advantage, DePaul has a significant home-away split. The Blue Devils are 3-1-1 at Wish Field but are a much worse 1-4-1 on the road. Georgetown should be careful to not underestimate a conference opponent in its element. Marquette made that mistake at DePaul last season. The Golden Eagles needed a win away at DePaul in order to clinch the Big East regular-season title but fell 2-1, opening the door for Georgetown to unexpectedly win the conference.

While the Hoyas will be sure to treat their opponent as a serious threat, they will likely also carry a good amount of confidence into Saturday. DePaul has played a much weaker schedule than Georgetown, yet it has had little success so far this season. The Blue Devils have lost to teams such as Western Michigan University (6-3-2), the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (3-7-2, 0-2-1 Herizon League) and suffered a 4-0 defeat to Villanova (6-4-1, 1-1 Big East).

Georgetown, meanwhile, is in the midst of a four-game shutout streak. The backline has allowed just six goals this season, and senior goalkeeper and captain Tomas Gomez has presided over six total shutouts.

“All of those goals [that Georgetown has allowed] were Keystone Cops stuff. It was not like: ‘Boy, what a great play that was by Indiana …’ Instead it was: ‘what did we just do to concede that goal?’ We have ironed that stuff out, which is good,” Wiese said.

The lack of a midweek game will also play to the Hoyas advantage. Georgetown has had a large number of weekday games this season, especially during nonconference play. This week, the off-days have allowed the coaches to work with players and the players to work on getting healthy. For the first time in several weeks, no players will be limited because of injury. Seiler and Campbell, who have been nursing foot injuries, will both be available Saturday. Seiler will likely start for the first time since Sept. 21’s game against William and Mary. The recuperating players definitely appreciated the extra days of rest, but Rudy believes that the off week has helped the entire team.

“We needed a long rest. It came at a great time in the season,” Rudy said. “We played Maryland and then turned around and played Marquette, two pretty grueling games. Schoolwork and exams are starting to pick up right now, too … It will definitely be an advantage. We needed it.”

Kickoff in Chicago will be at 1 p.m.