Villanova University

HARRISON, N.J.--In the semifinals of the BIG EAST Championship on Friday night No. 5 seed Villanova (8-9-4) and No. 3 seed St. John's (13-6-2) battled until the late stages of the game before a pair of goals by the Red Storm in the final 13 minutes decided the outcome in a 2-0 defeat for the Wildcats at Red Bull Arena. The loss ends a remarkable run for Villanova, which registered the first two postseason wins in program history en route to reaching the semifinals of the conference tournament.

"I am extremely proud of these guys," head coach Tom Carlin said following the game. "It was a big breakthrough for the program to get where we did this year and I am happy about that. Throughout the entire season the guys battled hard and they were committed to be in it for the long run."

Tonight's semifinal game was a rematch of a regular season Red Division matchup that the Wildcats won 3-1 last month. Both sides wound up advancing to the semifinal round of the BIG EAST Championship and the second meeting had plenty to offer in a world-class venue that was nationally-televised.

St. John's scored the game's first goal in the 77th minute on a play that materialized just inside the top of the 18-yard box. Jack Bennett sent a ball ahead to Walter Hines, who was racing to get to the ball before either junior defender Kyle McCarthy (Basking Ridge, N.J.) or senior goalkeeper John Fogarty (Marmora, N.J.) could corral it. The three wound up converging on the ball at the same time and at the last second Hines tipped it past Fogarty from 12 yards out and the ball rolled into the back of the net.

Less than a minute after the goal Villanova nearly answered on a header in front of the net by junior forward Kyle Soroka (Langhorne, Pa.) but his shot was wide left with 12:24 to play and the Red Storm mostly controlled possession in the remaining minutes.

Ido Ligety scored an insurance goal for St. John's in the 82nd minute on a header after a corner kick by Bennett, making the score 2-0 with 8:54 remaining.

The game's first goal came just after a seven-minute stretch in the middle of the second half where the Wildcats had a long possession inside Red Storm territory and were able to manufacture good looks at the net. Villanova attempted nine shots in the second half, including five unanswered between the 70th and 77th minutes.

None of the looks for the Wildcats during the game were better than back-to-back chances that opened up in the 75th minute. A hard shot by junior midfielder Emerson Lawrence (Newark, N.J.) was saved by St. John's goalkeeper Alex Naples, who had come out of the net to make the play. An even harder rebound shot by Soroka was headed away by a St. John's defender that was protecting the empty net.

"It was very heads up play by the two defenders that positioned themselves in front of the goal," Carlin said. "Their goalkeeper will sometimes come out on plays like that and their defenders automatically get into place."

The shot by Soroka which was headed away came with 15:40 left in the game and two minutes later a shot by junior defender Ryan Whalen (Basking Ridge, N.J.) was blocked. It was on the ensuing Red Storm possession that St. John's put in the game's first goal.

"St. John's is a tremendous team," Carlin said. "They did a great job taking advantage of an opportunity to get the game's first goal. We are proud of them and hope they represent our side of the bracket well in the championship game."

Fogarty made four saves in the game while facing 18 shots from the Red Storm, who wound up with an 18-12 edge in shots and a 7-3 advantage in corner kicks for the evening. Despite the two late goals the flow of play was much more balanced in the second half, when St. John's shot advantage was 10-9.

"In the last 20 minutes you got to see what Villanova is all about," Carlin said. "There were times tonight where St. John's had the better of the play but we are a resilient bunch. Our guys battled and there was a point where it looked like we were going to get a goal."

The semifinal loss ended a remarkable run for the Wildcats, who had won four of their past six games. Villanova defeated nationally-ranked Notre Dame (No. 18) and USF (No. 5), both on the road, in the two most recent games of that stretch to advance to the BIG EAST semifinals for the first time since 1993.

Prior to this season the Wildcats had been 0-9-2 all-time in the BIG EAST Championship but now have two wins in the tournament to their credit. This year marked the fifth straight season that Villanova has reached the conference championship and the 12th time overall.

"We played our best soccer at the end of the season and because of that we put ourselves in a position to be able to compete on a national level against the likes of Notre Dame, USF and St. John's," Carlin said. "I am proud of that. Because of injuries we had to juggle our lineup at various points during the year but there came a point in time when we decided that we were most dangerous with [Soroka] and [sophomore forward Dylan Renna (West Milford, N.J.)] up top. That was during the first St. John's game and that was really the turning point for us. We had an offensive explosion with those two guys scoring our three goals in that game and we kept it rolling from there."