VILLANOVA, Pa. - The Villanova Wildcats play their second of three consecutive road games to open the 2014 schedule on Wednesday night when they meet Philly Soccer Six rival Drexel in Philadelphia (7:00 p.m.).

For Villanova, it's a chance to move past a 1-0 loss at Marist in its season opener. The Wildcats, who tallied nine goals in a pair of pre-season scrimmages, were unable to capitalize on a number of promising scoring opportunities.

"I think this has served to re-focus our guys and now we're looking for redemption against a good Drexel team that's been to the NCAA Tournament each of the last two years," states Villanova head coach Tom Carlin.

A pair of Wildcats played exceptionally well in the estimation of the coaching staff on Friday night. Sophomore goalkeeper Will Steiner thrived in his regular season debut, stopping a penalty shot and making several other big stops. Senior Oscar Umar also helped create some of the dangerous scoring chances.

"We thought Steiner played a great game," said Carlin. "We were very impressed with what he did and Oscar did an excellent job in the midfield. We will need to draw off his talent and experience as we move forward."

This will be Villanova's first visit to Drexel since 2010. The Wildcats have earned victories just five times in 19 all-time matches against the Dragons but have won three of the last four clashes, including a 1-0 victory on West Campus in 2011. Drexel claimed a 2-0 win over the `Cats in the last meeting between the two schools at Vidas Field in West Philadelphia four years ago and posted a 1-0 win at Temple in its 2014 season opener.

"Drexel has some very good attacking pieces and is dangerous," stated Carlin. "We will need to do a good job of neutralizing them while also creating our own chances to score."

"We feel like we accomplished some of the things we wanted to against Marist with our ability to move the ball and create chances. But we have to finish some of those and be solid defensively, especially in transition."

Following this contest, Villanova (0-1-0) has one more road test in front of it at Hartford on Saturday night. After that, the Wildcats will host their first regular season contest at the newly remodeled Higgins Soccer Complex on Sept. 11 when St. Peter's pays a visit.