VILLANOVA, Pa. – A free kick goal by Jorge Garcia at 89:17 Tuesday lifted Villanova to a 3-2 victory over Columbia in a non-conference men's soccer game played on a sun-splashed October afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex.
Columbia had tied the game at 86:39 and the contest appeared destined to end in a draw. But the Wildcats (1-6-4 overall, 0-3-0 BIG EAST) had other ideas and wound up with a tantalizing free kick after freshman Karson Vazquez was tripped by a Lions defender just outside the 18-yard box, Garcia, the Wildcats captain, sent a shot over the wall of defenders and inside the right post.
"On my kick, I just saw that wall so I figured I would go around it," said Garcia, who recorded his fourth goal of the campaign on the shot. "The key was just not giving up in those final minutes. The way the play started it was just two challenges, Karson drew he foul and that's what led us to getting the goal and the win.
And the win?
"It's important," said Garcia. "I think we all know what we are capable of. Now we'll just try to carry this momentum going into Akron."
Elwood Westhoff, who came to the Wildcats three years ago from Team Impact, served as honorary captain on the day.
Added head coach Mark Fetrow: "I'm really happy for the guys. It's been a long season in terms of results that we were hoping to get. But the guys have continued to work hard. This is a good confidence booster and for it to be on Team Impact Day is really important for us. The message to the team was about Elwood and the resilience he shows every day. He's faced more things in his life than our guys have or I have."
"We really wanted to get this win for him."
The Wildcats jumped out to a 1-0 lead at 17:15 as Jason Bouregy served a beautiful ball on a set piece that found a charging Kyle Dixon on the right side of the Columbia 18-yard box. Dixon re-directed the ball into the net to stake Nova to the lead.
Columbia, though, came right back, forcing a Villanova miscue near midfield that resulted in a near breakaway chance for Joao Lima. Lima's shot tied the match at one just 1:41 after the Wildcats had moved on top.
Bouregy helped create another goal for the 'Cats in the first half, this time starting a play by sending a ball to freshman Karson Vazquez. A feed from Vazquez found back O'Neil Dawes, who finished the play with his first career goal.
The Wildcats held that lead into halftime and for most of the second half. But a Jack McDaid blast along the turf drew the Lions even before the final minute heroics from Vazquez and Garcia.
"We've been keeping things interesting all year," noted Fetrow. "We're still working on limiting some of these mistakes that are costing us goals. But the great thing we have kind of celebrated as a team is that we call ourselves gunslingers. We fancy ourselves as a team that can go score a lot of goals. The team never felt like they were out of it and kept pushing. Sure enough, Jorge got a really good opportunity at the end of the game and buried the moment."
Villanova returns to BIG EAST Conference action this weekend with its first every league duel with the University of Akron. The Zips are in their second season as an associate BIG EAST member in Men's Soccer and the two sides did not meet in 2023. Saturday night's game kicks off at 7 p.m.
