VILLANOVA, Pa. – A set piece goal by junior Vincent Petrera in the 75^th minute helped Villanova earn a 2-2 draw against Western Michigan (5-1-2 overall) on a bright, sunny afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex.
 
The pivotal play began with a Wildcats' corner kick. Senior Dominic Cyriacks lofted a beautiful ball inside the box that Petrera was able to re-direct with his head past Broncos goalkeeper Ethan Brandt at 74:37.
 
"It's real easy to feel sorry for yourself when things don't go exactly the way you wanted them to early on," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin. "But that can't define us. We've just got to keep fighting to win all the little battles. Those are things that make or break a game. We've just got to stay on top of them.
 
"We went down a goal and it would have been real easy for us to put our heads down. We didn't do that. We fought through it and got the equalizer."
 
The Wildcats opened the scoring on a counter in the first half. Petrera found freshman Belmar Joseph, who then fed the ball to Balthi Saunders. Saunders took care of the rest, sending the ball into the net at 17:52 to give Nova the early advantage.
 
But Western Michigan got one back a little more than two minutes later. Dylan Sing finished off a feed from Noah James and the game was level in the 21^st minute.
 
"That's a really tough team to play against," noted Carlin. "You've got to win that first ball and you've got to be ready for them to just pump balls in on you. They're aggressive and their forward Charlie Sharp is a handful. He's a quality top Division I forward."
 
The game remained deadlocked at one until early in the second half. Western Michigan struck again, with Sing again scoring for the Broncos. This score came at 51:45, pushing the Broncos on top.
 
But the Wildcats heeded their coach's words to keep pushing.
 
"We had to fight so they can't keep you pressed in," Carlin stated.
 
Graduate student Michael Sheridan made his Villanova debut in goal and did his part, recording seven saves, including several significant ones as the Broncos pressed forward.
 
And the set piece goal was a welcome sight to the Wildcats (0-3-3 overall, 0-1 BIG EAST).
 
"We needed that," Carlin said. "Dom gave us a good service. We changed our runs a little bit and that worked better. We have a pretty big hole to dig out of with the set piece goals we gave up early in the year but this was a good step for us today."
 
Up next for the Wildcats is their first BIG EAST road action of 2023. They'll travel to meet Providence Saturday at 7 p.m.