Final Stats

PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Five unanswered goals and six of the seven scores in the third quarter made the difference as Villanova trumped the Penn Quakers 17-11 on Saturday afternoon at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pa. The Wildcats took control of the contest and sealed the win in less than 10 minutes of action in the third quarter to solidify their fourth-straight win of the season.

With today's outcome, Villanova improved to 4-1 overall on the year while Penn dropped to 3-3. It marked the largest margin of victory for Villanova over the Quakers dating back to the 2009 season and snapped a two-year losing streak against their Philadelphia-rivals. The two sides have met for 18 straight seasons while nine of the previous 15 games, including four of the last five contests, had been decided by one goal.

The Wildcats were led by the combined 13 point performance of junior Jack Curran (Fair Haven, N.J.) and freshman Sean Cerrone (Huntington, N.Y.) who notched a total of six goals and seven assists on the afternoon. Nine players recorded points in the victory while Greg Stamatov (Foxboro, Mass.) and Dan Willis (Moorestown, N.J.) registered five saves apiece on the defensive end. Junior LSM Jordan Cunningham (Atlanta, Ga.) led the squad with six groundballs and freshman faceoff specialist Luke Palmadesso (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) won 19-of-31 (.613) attempts at X.

In the always heated matchup of Villanova vs. Penn, the Wildcats were the clear winners in today's contest and never allowed the Quakers to lead in the contest. Villanova took an early 3-2 lead following first quarter goals from Kurtis Naslonski (Randolph, N.J.), Kieran Byrnes (Garden City, N.Y.) and Eric Gartner (Malvern, Pa.) before Penn knotted the game at 3-3 with goals from Isaac Bock and Greg Caso.

Curran went to work in the second stanza and rattled off three of his four goals in just over four minutes of action to put the Cats up 7-4. Penn's Nick Doktor tallied the final score of the first half to make it a 7-5 game in favor of Villanova at intermission.

Coming out of halftime, Villanova registered five-straight scores to take their biggest lead of the game at 12-5 with 4:10 left on the clock in the third. Danny Seibel (Wakefield, Mass.), Christian Cuccinello (Mountain Lakes, N.J.), Johnny Gallaway (Middletown, Md.) and Gartner tallied points in the quarter to close out the period at 13-6 in favor of the visitors.

Penn had visions of a comeback in the final stanza ala the 2014 meeting between the two sides, but Villanova answered each of their offensive runs. UPenn's Kevin Grown and Austin Kreinz make it a 13-8 game before Curran notched his fourth goal of the match to stop the Quaker momentum.

Each side registered another three goals each before the contest finished at 17-11 in favor of the Cats. Cerrone recorded his two goals of the contest in the closing minutes including one with just 40 second on the clock on an empty net for the last Villanova score of the day.

Villanova outshot their opponents by a 41-34 margin and won the groundball game 28-22. The Wildcats were 2-of-5 on extra man opportunities while Penn connected on 3-of-4 of their EMO attempts.

The Wildcats return home next week for two games set to take place on their home turf at Villanova Stadium. VU will host Lehigh on Tuesday, March 10th at 7 p.m. and will be on short rest when they take on the Maryland Terps on Saturday, March 14th at 1 p.m.