Villanova Men's Soccer Defeats Lafayette 2-1

In the final non-conference game of the season, the Villanova men's soccer team used a couple of early goals and a strong defensive effort to hold off Lafayette and win the game 2-1. Villanova struck twice early on through the heads seniors Ryan Quane and Kyle Soroka.

First it was Oscar Umar who won possession along the left sideline and wriggled free to send a cross in towards the goal. Quane, making his first start of the season, ran on to the feed and directed a header into the net to give Villanova the lead in the 6th minute.

In the 19th minute it was Dylan Renna picking up the assist on the second goal. His cross from the right sideline found Soroka who also scored on a header, his team-leading 6th goal of the season.

Despite the early flurry of goals it was actually Lafayette who owned the shots advantage at halftime (10-7) and they narrowly missed getting on the board seeing a shot hit the crossbar.

Lafayette would make the end of game a tense one for 'Nova, as in the 81st minute Alex Golini was able to redirect a cross past John Fogarty to make the game 2-1, but the Cats would hold off the Leopards from there.

"Our seniors had never beaten Lafayette prior to today and that's something we talked about going into this game," stated Villanova head coach Tom Carlin. "I thought we came out and really responded well to get the early goals. We lost our aggressiveness in the last 25 minutes and they did what good teams do when that happens, which is take advantage. They found the goal and the last 10 minutes were tense."

Villanova returns to Big East action for the remainder of the season on Saturday when they will host Cincinnati at the West Campus Soccer Complex at 1:00 pm ET. The game will be carried on 'Nova Nation All-Access ($).