Sept. 2, 2017
VILLANOVA, Pa. -- When it needed a lift, Villanova looked toward a senior captain on an overcast day at the Higgins Soccer Complex. Andreas Bartosinski stepped forward at a critical juncture late in the first half with a goal that ignited a burst that lifted Villanova past UMBC 5-2.
With time winding down before halftime, the Wildcats (1-2 overall, 0-0 BIG EAST) found themselves in a 1-0 hole after surrendering a penalty kick goal in the 26th minute to Sammy Kahsai. Enter Bartosinski, who accepted a pass from freshman Yusuf Cueceoglu, and delivered a critical score at 41:25 to get back to level.
The Wildcats would score four more times in the second half -- including another from Bartosinski -- to pull away to a 5-2 victory over the Retrievers (2-1 overall, 0-0 America East).
"I thought we just stuck with it," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin. "We were up against it there when we gave up the early PK. Then we got a hard run from Andreas, a senior captain, who finds his way through and scores a huge goal. That really allowed us to keep doing what we wanted to do. We didn't have to change our tactics at halftime to be more aggressive and chase the game."
Cueceoglu, playing in his second collegiate home game, enjoyed a strong day as well. In addition to the assist on the first goal, he scored two of his own in the second half. The first of those came at 65:18 after some nifty playmaking from classmate Theo Quartey left him a clear path to the ball. The strike from the right foot of Cueceoglu was true and eluded UMBC goalkeeper Ciaran O'Loughlin at 65:18.
A little more than six minutes later, senior Lucas Hodges found Cueceoglu for his second goal of the contest at 71:37.
"Yusuf's got to keep shooting," noted Carlin. "You can see what happens when he shoots."
The Retrievers drew back to within 3-2 in the 77th minute when Tom Paul scored. But at 80:42 UMBC was whistled for a foul in its own box as the Wildcats attacked. Bartosinski was thwarted on his penalty kick bid by O'Loughlin's fine save but he collected his own rebound and sent it into the net to push the advantage back to 4-2.
Jacob Anderson, Jack Gilliam, and Quartey teamed up on a pretty combination play to record the final Villanova score of an afternoon that was dry until a heavy rain began falling in the contest's final minutes. Anderson sent a ball from the right side across to Gilliam, who fed a pass along the turf to Quartey, open near the top of the 18 yard box. Quartey sent the shot into the net at 85:31 and the Wildcats could exhale.
"Theo was fantastic," said Carlin. "He helps us out of a lot of tight situations."
The Wildcats' attack was boosted by the return from injury of two seniors, Miguel Polley and Max Kroschwitz.
"Having Miguel and Max back helped us so much," added Carlin.
Mostly, though, it was about a positive result to go with a quality effort.
"It's very good to get in the win column," Carlin said. "All of us can take a breath now. The guys have had a great energy and belief. We were 0-2 but if you looked at how we played against Virginia and even against Temple, we believe we are a good team. It was just a matter of when it was going to break for us. Today, we had that breakthrough."
