Final Stats

VILLANOVA, Pa. ââ'¬" A goal in the 96th minute lifted No. 10/11 Butler past Villanova in a spirited clash that was the BIG EAST opener for both sides. David Goldsmith ââ'¬" who finished with five points on the day - headed a shot just beyond the reach of Villanova's Will Steiner at 95:02 to snap a 2-2 deadlock.

Sophomore Zach Zandi and junior Lucas Hodges each scored a second half goal for the Wildcats (3-3-0 overall, 0-1-0 BIG EAST) to draw them back to level. Junior Miguel Polley was credited with an assist on the Hodges' goal.

Butler improves to 5-0-1 on the season.

"Butler's a good team," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin. "Credit to them. What they are strong at, they do very well. They're a good transition team that gets numbers forward. They're pretty hungry in the box.

"There were some miscues in our end that they took advantage of. With that said, we battled. We clawed our way back twice. It would have been nice to get that third one late in the second half. We had some chances ââ'¬" they cleared a ball off the line. We weren't able to convert, though, and they did."

The Bulldogs grabbed the first lead of the day at 17:59 when a shot by Eric Leonard was blocked and found its way to Goldsmith, who quickly took advantage by sending a shot into the back of the net.

That was the only goal tallied in the contest's first 45 minutes.

Early in the second half, Villanova drew level after Butler was whistled for a foul just inside the top of its own 18-yard box. Zandi took the penalty kick and finished with his first goal of 2016 at 47:56.

A near capacity crowd at the Higgins Soccer Complex on Parents' Weekend was treated to an entertaining back and forth battle the rest of the way.

Butler regained the lead off a blast from the foot of Marco Charalambous at 54:33 that found its way just inside the left post. Goldsmith earned an assist on the goal.

Villanova answered at 71:01 after Polley found Hodges on the left side. The junior from California fired in a shot along the synthetic surface that eluded Butler goalkeeper Eric Dick to draw the Wildcats even again.

Both teams had near misses in the final minutes before the horn sounded ending the 90 minutes of regulation.

"I thought Butler took us out of our flow early," Carlin noted, "Then finally, in those last 30 minutes, we found it. That's us. We got there and felt like we were wearing them down. It took a lot to do what they did. We felt good going into overtime because of that.

"But, you've got to make simple plays. It's one of the fundamentals of playing on the back line. When you don't make simple plays, you've leave yourself open to that kind of play."

Goldsmith rose up to re-direct a lofted feed into the box and guided the ball into the net for the golden goal at 95:02.

The Wildcats return to action on Tuesday night with a Philly Soccer Six match at Saint Joseph's.