Villanova University

Oct. 31, 2009

Final Stats

VILLANOVA, Pa. - The fifth ranked University of Louisville Cardinals came to the West Campus Soccer Complex with an opportunity to secure their place atop the BIG EAST Red Division heading into the postseason and they took full advantage, posting a 5-0 win over Villanova to spoil the `Cats "Senior Day."

"This was a valuable learning experience for us," stated VU head coach Tom Carlin. "Louisville had a chance to grab the BIG EAST title and give them all the credit, they came here and took it. We weren't as ready as we needed to be in those first 15 minutes and they did what great teams do, they took advantage.

With a light rain falling, the fans at the Soccer Complex had barely settled on to the bleachers when the Cardinals struck. Paolo Del Picciolo fed a ball across the field just outside the box to J.T. Murray, who was making a run from his left back position. Murray took the pass in stride and fired a low blast into the net, past Wildcat goalkeeper Chris Bresnahan, to stake U of L to a 1-0 lead at 8:52. The shot was Louisville's first of the afternoon.

Louisville struck again at 24:20 when Colin Rolfe sent a shot from inside the box towards Bresnahan. The rebound came to teammate Mark Knight, who pushed the ball into the net and it was suddenly a 2-0 edge for the Cardinals.

Exactly one minute later, Louisville was on the board again. This one came off a corner kick that Del Picciolo lofted into the box. Freddie Braun got his head on the ball and guided into the net and the lead was 3-0 at the 25:20 mark.

Villanova gathered itself late in the half and generated a flurry of shots in the final 10 minutes of the period. But the Cardinals kept VU off the board and the halftime count remained 3-0.

John Fogarty replaced Bresnahan in the Villanova goal to start the second half and the `Cats produced two good chances, including one from senior Mike Seamon, but they couldn't cash in early in the half. Then Louisville countered with a gorgeous individual move by Colin Rolfe in the box. He shook off a Wildcat defender with a nifty dribble and sent a low shot past Fogarty into the right corner of the net at 54:42 to push the margin to 4-0.

The Cardinals closed the scoring at 71:56 when Freddie Braun headed in a Del Piccolo serve on a free kick to make the final score 5-0.

Villanova actually outshot Louisville 19-18 but couldn't match the number of quality scoring chances the Cardinals generated. Card keeper Andre Boudreaux made three saves in posting the shutout, which insures Louisville (13-2-2 overall, 8-2-1 BIG EAST) will be at home next weekend for a quarterfinal round match.

The Wildcats (9-7-2 overall, 5-5-1 BIG EAST), meanwhile, are assured of a BIG EAST Tournament game this Wednesday. They will learn the identity of their opponent and the location of the game by Sunday evening.

"This is not something we could teach our guys," stated Carlin. "They had to experience this and now they have. We have to have a short memory, put this behind us, and get focused on Wednesday. We haven't put BIG EAST wins back-to-back all season and we have one more chance to do it."

Adam Amann, Connor Esposito, Drew Heinold and Seamon were honored for their contributions to the program in a pre-game ceremony.