Final Stats

OMAHA, Neb. ââ'¬" The Villanova Wildcats were faced with a tall task on Saturday night as they traveled here to Morrison Stadium to meet the nation's consensus No. 1 team, the Creighton Bluejays on Senior Night without a group of key starters including Zach Zandi, Christopher Bared and Randy Falk.

Villanova got the upper hand with an early goal but fell victim to the Bluejays' potent offensive attack as they ultimately dropped a 5-1 decision. The loss evens Villanova's overall record at 7-7 and drops them to 2-4 within the BIG EAST Conference.

Creighton, meanwhile, recorded its 15th consecutive victory and improved to 6-0 within the BIG EAST.

The Wildcats did get a couple of injured starters back in Colton Bryant and Max Kroschwitz, though Kroschwitz only saw limited action as a reserve late in the first half.

"Credit to Creighton ââ'¬" that is a very good team," stated Villanova coach Tom Carlin. "But we were in a tough situation coming in here without some of our starters. We just made mistakes at key points and they did a great job of capitalizing on them."

A couple of strong saves by sophomore Will Steiner allowed Villanova to hold off an early Creighton push and the Wildcats made the most of their first deep foray into Creighton's side of the field. A free kick from senior Sean Sheridan created one chance and a few moments later sophomore Miguel Polley sent a cross into the box that junior Padraic McCullaugh re-directed via a header into the top right side of the net at 11:05.

The Wildcats led 1-0, the same score by which they had defeated Creighton here two years ago.

"It was good to get that first goal," Carlin stated, "but it seemed that they remembered the last time we were here."

Creighton soon unleashed one of the nation's most dangerous scoring outfits.

Villanova's lead vanished just 1:11 after it had been established as Joel Rystrand sent a shot along the playing surface into the right side of the net. Assists on the play were awarded to Fabian Herbers and Fernando Castellanos.

"We actually defended that pretty well," noted Carlin. "It was just a great goal on their part."

Creighton took the lead at 22:46 off a booming blast off the foot of Ricardo Perez from 30 yards out. The rising shot was lofted over the outstretched hand of Steiner and just below the cross bar. It was 2-1.

A give and go play between Noah Franke (assist) and Herbers (goal) pushed the Bluejays' advantage to 3-1 at 30:06. Then, a corner kick from the right side was sent via header into the net at 33:57 by Peter Prescott to extend the margin to 4-1.

That is where the score remained after 45 minutes.

Creighton owned a 19-6 advantage in first half shots and was awarded eight of the period's nine corner kicks. Steiner made six saves, several of them of the spectacular variety.

Perez recorded his second goal of the night at 71:15 to make it 5-1 in Creighton's favor. Evan Waldrep and Herbers picked up the assists on what proved to be the final score of the evening.

"There was just too much adversity for us and we didn't handle it the way you have to in order to knock off the No. 1 team in the country," Carlin stated. The final shots total was 39-10, the most shots ever posted by the Bluejays in a game at Morrison Stadium.

Steiner made eight saves for Villanova while Connor Sparrow picked up the win for the Bluejays.

Next up for the Wildcats is a road date on Wednesday night at St. John's. The match will be live streamed via the BIG EAST Digital Network at Fox Sports Go.