CINCINNATI, Ohio – A goal scored in the game's opening minutes helped lift Xavier (4-2-5 overall, 2-1-1 BIG EAST) past Villanova (6-4-1 overall, 1-3-0 BIG EAST) by a count of 1-0 in a tight battle staged Saturday night here.
Xavier broke into the scoring column in the fifth minute. The scoring play began with a long run by the Musketeers' Cameron Belle, who then sent a cross into the middle. His feed found Samson Sergi, whose header eluded Wildcats goalkeeper Carson Williams at 4:43 to give Xavier the early edge.
           "We made three individual mistakes on that one sequence and they made us pay," stated Wildcats head coach Tom Carlin. "Each was an individual battle that they won and it gave them a goal."
The Musketeers kept pressing and had seven of the game's first eight shots, two of which were on net.
           "I thought we had good possessions in the first half," Carlin said. "I didn't think we had a slow start in this one so much as we made three mistakes on the same play."
As he has often this season, though, senior forward Kian Zapata helped change the game's tempo upon his entry midway through the period. He forced a Xavier turnover in its own end that provided a dangerous moment before the Musketeers were able to clear the ball.
A Shane Bradley feed in from just inside the midfield stripe nearly found sophomore Yusuf Cueceoglu inside the Xavier box on the final possession of the first half. However, it missed and the Wildcats went into the intermission trailing 1-0.
The shot total at the half found Xavier with an 8-2 advantage. Cueceoglu and Conor Bradley had the shot attempts for the Wildcats.
Scoring attempts were still tough to muster for both sides as the match moved towards the 60th minute of play. A loose ball near the far post had to be cleared out of a dangerous area with a Xavier forward lurking nearby. That prevented the Musketeers from extending their lead at that point. Not long after Williams was in perfect position to make the save on shot from Xavier's Tomek Pauer.
Later some creative work with the ball by sophomore Theo Quartey got a ball through to junior Jack Gilliam but a Xavier defender was able to get a piece of the ball, deflecting it away from the scoring area.
Villanova really turned up the heat in the final 15 minutes of regulation. A series of chances were turned away by Xavier goalkeeper Colin Hanley. Perhaps the best chance in the sequence was the final one with 15 seconds to play in the match. Junior Luca Mellor fired a shot that barely missed the corner of the net.
           "We found our physicality and aggressiveness in the second half," stated Carlin. "We were able to get behind their defense and create some quality chances. Xavier is one of the best transitional teams in the conference - they sit back and then can hurt you on the counter attack. But we controlled that and were able to get chances. We just didn't get the goal."
The final count was 1-0.
Xavier out-shot the Wildcats 13-8, with VU owning a 5-3 edge in the game's final 30 minutes.
Villanova returns to action in one week, when it travels to meet Georgetown at 1 p.m. (BIG EAST Digital Network).
