Oct. 7, 2009
Final Stats
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - The Villanova Wildcats picked up three goals after halftime to earn a 3-1 victory over the Syracuse Orange here on a wet and windy night here Wednesday. The victory lifts Villanova's record to 6-4-2 overall, 3-2-1 in the BIG EAST while the Orange fall to 2-9-0 overall, 1-5-0 in the BIG EAST.
Villanova had the better of the chances in the first half but neither squad was able to break the scoreless deadlock in the first 45 minutes. Sophomore goalkeeper Chris Bresnahan and the Wildcats defense kept the Orange at bay, limiting the number of chances and allowing the offense time to be patient.
"The wind was gusting at about 20 miles per hour and it does impact the game," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin. "It tends to slow things down and makes creating chances harder. I think we saw the wind's impact in the first half - there just weren't many opportunities."
The `Cats took advantages of their opportunities in the second half.
Freshman Kyle Soroka got things going at 63:14 when he converted a feed from sophomore Matt Margiotta to give the Wildcats a one goal lead.
"At halftime we talked to our guys about staying committed to the game plan," Carlin stated. "Syracuse likes to create off transition and we got some ball movement off of that. Marge was able to beat his defender and he just executed a nice ball to Soroka who put it in the back of the net."
Just less than 10 minutes later - 9:50 to be exact - VU gave itself a two goal cushion thanks to the work of senior Mike Seamon and sophomore Kevin Garcia. Seamon set up Garcia at 73:04 to make it a two goal margin.
"After the first goal the game opened up a bit," stated Carlin. "Syracuse had to take some chances and we were able to attack off of that."
Junior Sean Mergenthal picked up his first goal of the campaign at 76:48 off a pass from classmate Anthony Griffith.
Syracuse got its only goal from Eliott Townsend in the 81st minute to make the final 3-1.
Bresnahan made three saves in picking up his sixth win of the season in net for the Wildcats before giving way to sophomore John Fogarty for the final 6:05. VU owned a 14-7 edge in shots for the evening.
The Wildcats are back on the road on Saturday when they journey to Cincinnati to face the Bearcats in a BIG EAST battle that gets underway at 7:00 p.m.
"This is a good road BIG EAST win for us," said Carlin. "It's kind of a tough week with a pair of road games sandwiched around mid-term (exams). We will get back to classes tomorrow and then prepare on Friday for another tough conference road game at Cincinnati. But getting the first of back-to-back road games takes a little of the pressure off and now we can just focus on executing at Cincinnati."
