Oct. 31, 2005
Final Stats
VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Villanova Wildcats secured home field advantage for the opening round of Big East Tournament play this week with a 3-1 victory over DePaul on a beautiful fall afternoon at the Villanova Soccer Complex. Villanova (7-7-3 overall, 6-4-1 Big East) earns the No. 4 seed in the Red Division and hosts Georgetown, the No. 5 seed in the Blue Division, at 1:00 p.m. on Thursday.
Billy Whiteside (Manheim Township, Pa.) sparked the `Cats, coming off the bench to score the game-winning goal and adding an assist on the final score of the afternoon.
Villanova gained the upper hand at the 15:52 mark off a corner kick. Senior Brett Stassfurth (Gahanna, Ohio), sent the ball into the box where a diving Farris Fakhoury (Parlin, N.J.) headed the ball into the net, behind DePaul goalie Brian Visser to make it 1-0.
The Blue Demons stepped up the offensive pressure and late in the first half were rewarded. Luke Rojo sent a corner kick into the box that deflected off a Villanova defender and ricocheted out to the Blue Demons' Eric Hermosillo, who was at the 12 yard mark. Hermosillo fired a blast towards the right side of the net that caromed off a Wildcat defender and past Villanova keeper Jason Friel (Dublin, Pa.) at 39:46 to knot matters at one.
Villanova received a huge lift with under a minute to play in the first half. Sophomore Matt Sleece nudged a ball toward Whiteside in the box, and Whiteside sent it past Visser at 44:29 to give the Wildcats the lead back. It was Whiteside's first goal of the season.
DePaul had several quality scoring chances in the second half but Friel, named Big East Goalie of the Week earlier in the day, was superb, making a key save on Greg Brinkman in the 59th minute to allow the Wildcats to retain their lead.
With the Blue Demons pressing late - the only way DePaul could have advanced to the Big East Tournament was with a victory - Whiteside helped to put the game away. He pressured Visser, knocked the ball away and sent a cross to Mike DelGuercio, who was wide open five yards in front of the net. DelGuercio put the chance away and VU owned a 3-1 advantage.
Villanova ended the afternoon with a 17-12 edge in shots.
"I thought we were sluggish at the outset," stated Villanova head coach Larry Sullivan. "This was our third game in five days and we look tired. DePaul came hard at us and they made it tough.
"But Whiteside gave us a spark off the bench. He came in and gave us some energy and made a couple of very big plays."
NOTES: Friel was named Big East Goalie of the Week for his work in consecutive Wildcat victories over St. John's and Syracuse last week ... Georgetown defeated Villanova 2-0 in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 23 ... The Hoyas also eliminated the Wildcats from the 2004 Big East Tournament in a quarterfinal match played at the Soccer Complex. The game ended in a 1-1 tie but the Hoyas advanced on penalty kicks.
