Georgetown Downs Villanova In Men’s Soccer

CHESTER, PA. 10/13/2017 – The Villanova Men’s Soccer team took the pitch, this time at Talen Energy Stadium in Chester to meet Big East foe the #9 Georgetown Hoyas, currently are in first place in conference, on a cool, cloudy evening.  The Wildcats were looking to build a winning streak, but that will have to wait as the Hoyas return back down I-95 with a 2 – 0 win over the Wildcats.

Villanova started slow, but began to battle Georgetown, and for a stretch in the second half of the game out battled them.

“We fought,” said Villanova Coach Tom Carlin.  “We’ve been talking about fight, showing fight and effort.  We saw that in the second half, and that’s a good thing.  We were able to step into them and create the chances we did, and win the battles that we needed to.  But at the end of the day, we didn’t get one.”

The Hoyas took a 1 – 0 lead on a goal in the 31st minute.  As a result of good interior passing Kyle Zajec put one in the upper left corner from the middle of the box.  It was his first goal of the season with Derek Dodson and Ethan Lochner giving him the touch passes to score.

The Villanova offense seemed to awaken after the score getting good scoring chances from Andreas Bartosinski and Zach Zandi in the last ten minutes of the first half.  Nova continued to press forward in the second half getting two good scoring opportunities in the first twenty minutes. The best chance came on a free kick.  Lucas Hodges was fouled.  Zandi took the free kick that beat Georgetown goalie J.T. Marcinkowski, but hit the far post and bounced away.  Miguel Polley followed later with shots, but Marcinkowski was there to make the saves.  He had 5 for the game.  Will Steiner saved 4 shots for Villanova.

“We got caught on our heels,” Carlin said. “In the second half we came out, we had purpose. We controlled the flow, but couldn’t get one.”

The Hoyas stemmed the tide.  Zach Knudson got behind the Wildcat defense, then took a pass from Declan McCabe and slid the ball past goalie Steiner in the 79th minute for the insurance goal.

“It’s a cruel game at times,” Carlin said.  “I liked the effort we were putting out there. I wish one would have went in.”

Nova had a 15 – 12 shot advantage, 9 – 5 in the second half.  The Hoyas led in corner kicks 5 – 4.

Georgetown improves to 9 – 2 – 1, 4 – 1 in the Big East.  Villanova now stands at 6 – 7 – 0, 2 – 3 – 0 in conference, and will meet city rival Penn on Tuesday before travelling to Butler over the weekend.  The effort against the Hoyas is one the team can build on the rest of the season.

“This atmosphere was meant to put us into an environment, and hopefully at the end of the season, if we can get into a playoff situation an environment will help us along the way.”

Written By: Glenn Papazian

Contact: Glenn@PhillyCollegeSports.com

 

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