Final Stats

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- The Villanova Wildcats picked up a pair of goals from senior midfielder Lucas Hodges and rolled to a 3-0 Philly Soccer Six victory over Saint Joseph's on an overcast and windy afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex. The win was the third in a row for the `Cats (5-3-0 overall, 1-0 BIG EAST), who now turn their sights to a Saturday night BIG EAST showdown at Creighton.

The Wildcats took full control early, dominating possession, and ended the day with a 20-11 advantage in shots over the Hawks, who fell to 2-3-2 overall.

"I think we've figured out who we are and how we need to be playing," stated Hodges of the surge that has seen the Wildcats outscore the opposition 8-1 over their last 270 minutes of soccer. "We're improving every day. I think the most important thing is to be better than we were earlier.

"Coach (Tom) Carlin tells us these (Soccer Six) games are about playing hard. We did that today. We came out pretty quickly and put it to them early. Eventually it opened up and we were able to take advantage."

After Saint Joseph's registered the game's first scoring opportunity -- only to be turned away by VU goalkeeper Will Steiner -- the Wildcats took control. Much of the game's possession time was spent in the final third near the Hawks' goalkeeper Greg O'Connell. O'Connell made three early saves but the `Cats broke through in the 29th minute.

In this case the advantage was gained by senior Miguel Polley, who worked his way around a defender and sent a cross through the box that Hodges deftly re-directed into the net at 28:41. The Wildcats jumped out to a 1-0 lead with Andreas Bartosinski also picking up an assist.

At halftime, they owned an 8-4 advantage in shots and the disparity seemed even larger than that.

The all-important second goal came courtesy of some strong work just inside the 18-yard box of the Hawks by sophomore Luca Mellor. Saint Joseph's was whistled for a foul just inside the top of the 18 yard box. Hodges buried the subsequent penalty kick at 65:55 to extend the VU lead to 2-0.

The remainder of the contest saw the Wildcats and Hawks each go down a man when Andres Camacho and the Hawks Aidan Watkins received red cards. In the case of Camacho, he actually received two yellow cards, the second resulting in the disqualification. In all, eight cards were handed out in the second half.

In the end, the outcome was not altered. The Wildcats cruised to the win. Junior Zach Zandi scored the game's final goal off of a feed from Hodges at 71:02.

"We have a lot of attacking players that are pretty skillful," stated VU head coach Tom Carlin. "When our off the ball movement is the way that it was today, we're hard to defend. That's a lot of trust, a lot of confidence and you need that level of talent to have it flow this way."