VILLANOVA, Pa. – Goals from Lyam MacKinnon and Balthi Saunders helped lift Villanova past Yale 2-1 in a men's soccer game played Monday afternoon at the Higgins Soccer Complex.
 
With a kickoff temperature of 81 degrees and a packed grandstand (attendance for the day was 885), the setting was ideal on a sun-splashed late summer day.
 
Villanova got on the board in the 18^th minute on a nifty play by the junior MacKinnon. The native of Switzerland found himself with the ball off a feed from Saunders after a Yale miscue, and, though he was approximately 40 yards from goal, noticed that Yale goalkeeper Elian Haddock was off his line. He sent a majestic ball over the outstretched arm of the keeper and into the back of the net at 17:25.
 
"When I got the ball, I saw that it was just me, the (Yale) center back and the keeper had kind of advanced," explained MacKinnon of his second goal of the season. "I didn't think about it, I just felt it. I was just trying to connect and it went in. It felt good."
 
Yale drew level a little more than five minutes later. The Bulldogs were awarded a penalty kick and Paolo Carroll sent a blast into the lower right side of the net, past goalkeeper Carson Williams at 22:21.
 
The game remained deadlocked well into the second half when MacKinnon – who had 10 shots on the day, including six on frame – made another key play. This time he and Gray Ricca did some sharp passing to set up teammate Balthi Saunders, whose low blast produced his first college goal at 71:35.
 
The Wildcats moved back in front and kept Yale off the scoreboard the rest of the way to lift their record to 3-1-0 overall, 0-0 BIG EAST. The Bulldogs, preseason Ivy League favorites, drop to 1-1-0 overall.
 
"We injected Balthi today and he just changes our attack," noted Wildcats head coach Tom Carlin of his freshman from Brooklyn, N.Y. "I thought he changed the game. He's a nice complement to Lyam.
 
"But we had a lot of contributions today, especially from our upperclassmen. These guys have had a lot of experiences together and they have been through these adverse moments. I thought the work ethic and our ability to stay on the front foot today was phenomenal."
 
Villanova outshot Yale 15-11 on the day. It kept the heat on Haddock, forcing him to make eight saves. Williams made a pair of saves for Villanova.
 
"Yale is a little younger than they've been but they are very hardworking and like to get forward," noted Carlin. "We had to back them off of us a little bit. For us, it was us stepping into them and not letting them get into a tempo. We saw how effective they were doing that in their win over Fairfield.
 
"The key for us was not letting them get into a tempo."
 
Today's match concludes a four-game homestand to open the 2021 fall regular season. The Wildcats take the short trip to North Philadelphia for a Saturday clash at Temple (7 p.m.).