Final Stats

CINCINNATI, Ohio -- The Villanova Wildcats picked up a key BIG EAST point Saturday, playing Xavier to a 2-2 tie. Lucas Hodges and Andreas Bartosinski scored the goals for Villanova, which is now 6-5-2 overall, 2-2-1 BIG EAST. Xavier is now 7-3-3 overall, 3-1-1 in conference action.

This game, originally slated for a 7 p.m. start, was moved off of the Xavier campus to nearby University of Cincinnati Gettler Stadium after flooding earlier in the week in the region.

"I feel proud of our guys," stated head coach Tom Carlin. "Through all the injuries, they stayed agressive, won a lot of battles and created a lot more scoring chances than we did at Temple and Providence. Xavier is a good team and we stood in there and went right at them."

The Wildcats got on the scoreboard first courtesy of a Lucas Hodges header. Freshman Sean Texeiria and senior Padraic McCullaugh were both credited with assists on the goal. The goal came at 9:07 and vaulted the Wildcats into an early 1-0 advantage. It was the junior's fourth goal of 2016.

It was a lead Villanova maintained throughout the balance of the first half. Xavier, which entered the contest with victories in five of its last six outings, was unable to dent a Wildcats defense that again played without starters Christopher Bared and Nikkeye DePoint as well as Andres Camacho, who stepped in for Bared before himself suffering an injury last week at Providence.

The Musketeers found the equalizer in the 49th minute. Matt Vasquenza sent a ball across the box to Matt Nance, who finished the play with his third goal of the campaign at 48:44.

Villanova regained the lead at 58:05 on a goal scored by junior Andreas Bartosinski, his first of the campaign. The native of Germany picked a ball that had been fired into the Musketeer box and sent a left-footed blast into the right corner of the net to put the Wildcats back in front.

Xavier answered with another equalizer at 71:50. Majed Osman sent a ball ahead that found Jaylen Brown, who deposited a shot into the back of the net to deadlock matters at two in the 72nd minute.

The contest remained deadlocked after 90 minutes sending the contest to overtime. Neither team was able to notch the game-winner in the extra 20 minutes and the contest ended in a draw.

"Our starting 11 were warriors," Carlin noted. "The injuries have cut into our depth but every one of these guys battled.

"This was a huge step forward for us. We didn't feel sorry for ourselves. We talked beforehand about drawing a line in the sand to protect this bond we have developed. With all the injuries we have working against us to play well here and get a point on the road was important."

On the day the Wildcats owned a 30-15 edge in shots. Eight of Villanova's bids were on goal. In addition, Villanova owned a 10-3 advantage in corner kicks.

After three straight games away from the Higgins Soccer Complex, the Wildcats begin a three game home stand on Wednesday. Penn comes to West Campus for a Philly Soccer Six match slated to kick off at 4 p.m.