VILLANOVA, Pa. – Lyam MacKinnon scored a pair of goals in his return from injury to help lead Villanova past Northwestern 4-0 Monday afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex.
 
After sitting both games of Villanova's trip last week to Stanford and Cal, MacKinnon was ready to go for the 'Cats home opener today on West Campus. The senior made his presence felt quickly on a partly sunny warm afternoon before a packed house of 1,278 on Labor Day.
 
"It feels awesome," stated MacKinnon of the win. "The work we put in during our trip to California didn't pay off out there but it feels great to be back and help the team win."
 
Villanova earned a corner kick in the 22^nd minute and junior Dominic Cyriacks served a ball in from the left corner. MacKinnon rose up and re-directed the ball on net with his head, beating Northwestern goalkeeper Christian Garner just under the top bar at 21:06.
 
The Wildcats had a series of other first period chances but Garner, who made seven saves on the day, was sharp. Villanova was up 1-0 at halftime with a 13-4 advantage in shots over the other Wildcats (0-2-2).
 
Early in the second half, MacKinnon took advantage after teammate Balthi Saunders forced a Northwestern turnover near midfield. The connection led to MacKinnon's second goal of the afternoon at 57:22.
 
"Balthi played a through ball to me," MacKinnon noted. "A defender came across me and kind of tripped up. I was just staring at the ball, focusing on putting it on frame. Thankfully it went in."
 
Villanova (1-1-1 overall) wasn't finished at the offensive end. Senior Gray Ricca found Akinjide Awujo, who used his speed to get ahead of a Northwestern defender and finished the play with a goal at 59:19. The goal was Awujo's second of the young campaign.
 
The final score of the day came at 66:22 when Awujo's hard work led to a Jorge Garcia chance. Garcia scored to push the margin to 4-0.
 
"We had a good week of practice," stated head coach Tom Carlin. "Our starters were really popping. We still weren't scoring in practice, but you could see the movement and transition really pop. You could see we were eager today. We're a veteran team and at home we've got to stay on our front foot. We knew we let an opportunity get away at Stanford and didn't play that well until the end at Cal.
 
"We knew we had to assert ourselves and I'm glad we did."
 
Having MacKinnon back in the starting 11 certainly helped matters.
 
"It makes such a difference when he's out there," says Carlin. "He's got such a great mind for the game and he's a difference-maker. He scores goals, he sets goals up. He's what you want in an attacking player."
 
The Wildcats will hit the road again later in the week, visiting Yale on Sunday at 5 p.m., before returning to Villanova for a two-game homestand against NJIT (Sept. 14) and Providence (Sept. 17).