Oct. 8, 2008

VILLANOVA, Pa. - Two first half goals and stout defense lifted the Villanova Wildcats (5-5-2 overall, 2-2-2 BIG EAST) to a 2-0 victory over Rutgers (4-4-3 overall, 1-3-2 BIG EAST) in a conference contest played at the Villanova Soccer Complex on Wednesday afternoon.

Villanova seized the momentum early in this one. The Wildcats applied pressure with deft passing and saw their commitment rewarded at 20:12. Senior Farris Fakhoury (Parlin, N.J./St. Joseph's Regional High School) nudged the ball away from a Rutgers defender back to freshman Kevin Garcia (Flushing, N.Y./St. Francis Prep) who sent a good ball ahead to junior Michael Seamon (Rahway, N.J./Union Catholic High School). Seamon collected the pass and dribbled into the left side of the box where he found just enough space to send a low shot past Rutgers goalkeeper Amir Haghshenas to make it 1-0.

"We really needed this," stated Seamon. "We had some games where we had good pressure but didn't' score. When you score early, it takes some of the pressure off. Kevin Garcia played a great ball into me."

The Wildcats picked up another score just before halftime. Freshman Matt Margiotta (Bear, Del./Salesianum High School) sent a shot towards the net that clipped a Scarlet Knights defender and rolled to classmate Anthony Yeboah (Portland, Maine/Deering High School). Yeboah calmly sent a shot past Haghshenas at 41:10 to add to the Wildcats' lead.

The improved offense, noted Villanova head coach Tom Carlin, was the result of some hard work on the practice pitch.

"We worked the past few days on passing in the final third and I thought it showed," stated the Wildcats first year head coach. "We had a little bit more patience on the dribble and worked to make plays off passes. It worked for us today. We got the early lead and got Rutgers chasing us."

Villanova clamped down defensively and play grew physical in the second half. A total of 25 fouls were called in the second half but there were few quality scoring chances for either team. Rutgers ended the afternoon with a 19-14 edge in shots. Haghshenas made four saves in net while Villanova freshman goalie Chris Bresnahan (McLean, Va./Gonzaga High School) made three.

"I'm proud of the guys," stated Carlin. "This was very big for us. Three of our next four games are against top 25 teams and it was important that we picked up a little momentum in a game at home. This is a tough BIG EAST stretch we have coming up but this was a good start."

The Wildcats visit BIG EAST power St. John's on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. in Jamaica, N.Y.