Sept. 29, 2004
ZERAPHATH, N.J. - The 21st ranked Seton Hall men's soccer team got a goal apiece from brothers, Sacha and Gordon Kljestan (Huntington Beach, Calif.) to earn a 2-0 win over 24th ranked Villanova on Wednesday afternoon at Player Development Academy. Senior Jerrod Laventure (Middle Island, N.Y.) notched an assist on both goals to help the Pirates improve to 6-2-1 overall and 2-1-0 in the BIG EAST. Villanova, ranked 24th in the latest College Soccer News poll, falls to 5-2-1 and 3-2-0. The game was moved away from SHU's home field, Owen T. Carroll Field, due to a rainstorm that came through the area on Tuesday night.
"The are a very good team and they only suffered their first loss on Sunday," head coach Manfred Schellscheidt said of Villanova. "Last week they were ranked and we took their spot in the rankings. They will take points from a lot of teams this year."
Seton Hall controlled much of the early action, but did not break through the Villanova defense until the 38th minute when Sacha Kljestan worked a give-and-go in the 18-yard box with Laventure and blasted his shot past VU's Craig Bald for a 1-0 advantage. The Pirates dominated offensively in the first half, outshooting the Wildcats, 10-0.
Villanova managed to mount pressure in the second half and generated a couple solid chances late in the game. In the 81st minute a Brett Strasfurth took a cross in the box and flicked a header on net, but junior Boris Pardo (Hillside, N.J.) made a diving save to preserve the shutout.
Gordon Kljestan put the game out of reach at 89:39 when he ran onto a long pass from Laventure and beat Bald to the ball and poked into the net for the final margin. Seton Hall finished with a 14-7 advantage in shots for the game, while Pardo made three saves for his second straight shutout. Bald made four saves for the Wildcats.
"Every win in a BIG EAST game is big," Schellscheidt said of the importance of his team's win. "Every game is a battle now. We played to what we needed to do. In the second half the wind forced us to play back a little bit and I thought our defenders played extremely well."
The Wildcats return home to face Connecticut on Sunday afternoon at 1:00 p.m.
