Pirates Set for Road Tilt at Villanova on Saturday

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Pirates Set for Road Tilt at Villanova on Saturday - Seton Hall University Athletics

Villanova, Pa. – Seton Hall men's soccer faces another BIG EAST road test on Saturday afternoon as they travel to face Villanova. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m....

shupirates.com

Villanova, Pa. – Seton Hall men's soccer faces another BIG EAST road test on Saturday afternoon as they travel to face Villanova. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports.

LAST TIME OUT
The Pirates ended in a scoreless draw at home against Stony Brook on Tuesday night. The Seawolves outshot the Pirates, 10-9, on the night as both sides were able to generate a number of dangerous chances. With the result, the Pirates are now unbeaten in each of their last 11 home non-conference fixtures.

SCOUTING VILLANOVA (1-4-3, 1-2-0 BIG EAST)

• The Wildcats also enter this match at 1-2 in BIG EAST play, getting their lone three points after a 4-3 win at Providence back on Sept. 23.
• Villanova is coming off a loss on the road to UConn, 1-0.
• Balthi Saunders paces the Wildcats' attack with a team-leading three goals and eight points, followed by Vincent Petrera and Marcus Brenes with two goals apiece.
• Seton Hall leads the all-time series, 22-16-1, including a victory over Villanova last season to clinch a berth in the BIG EAST Tournament.
• The Pirates have not won a match on the road at Villanova since 2008, going 0-5-1 over that stretch.

NEWS & NOTES

• Mats Roorda's 0.89 goals against average currently ranks as the third-lowest in a season in program history.
• The Pirates scored four goals in back-to-back matches against Bucknell and UConn, doing so for the first time since 2007
  • 9/30/07 – Defeated Rutgers, 4-1
  • 10/6/07 – Defeated Marquette, 5-1
• In the Sept. 19 win over Bucknell, a pair of Pirate reserves (Berglund, Smith) found the back of the net. This marked the first time since Sept. 10, 2021 that two Seton Hall substitutes scored in a match.
• Seton Hall did not allow a goal through the first 332:38 of the season before conceding against No. 10 Indiana. This set a new program record for longest shutout streak to begin a season, previously set back in 2005.
• Seton Hall opened the season with a 3-0 record for the first time since 2008.
• James Boote scored goals in back-to-back matches to open the season after entering the season with just one goal scored in his first 65 career games.
• With the season opening win over Rider on Aug. 24, the Pirates improved to 5-0-3 in season openers dating back to 2016.
• Mats Roorda was named BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week on Aug. 28 for his efforts in posting a pair of shutouts against Rider and Air Force. Boote was named to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after his five-point week.
• The Pirates face another challenging slate of matches in 2023, highlighted by five teams who made the NCAA Tournament last season. Included in those are matchups with Indiana and Creighton, both of whom made it all the way to the College Cup last fall.
• The Hall welcome 12 new faces to the program, including several potential impact transfers: Rikard Cederberg (Bellarmine), Mats Roorda (Binghamton), Jared Smith (Quinnipiac) and Tim Strobeck (Clemson).
• Three Pirates are capitalizing on their extra year of eligibility to return to Seton Hall as graduate students in 2023. James Boote, Andrea Borg and Hugo Keller will all suit back up for The Hall this season. All told, 19 players from last year's squad are back for the Pirates in 2023.
• Starting this season, the Pirates will be vying to finish inside the top-eight in the BIG EAST standings. With the addition of Akron to the league as a men's soccer affiliate member, the now-12 team conference has been split into an East Division and Midwest Division. Each division winner will qualify for the BIG EAST Championship, with the next six best teams based on conference points solidifying the remaining berths.
• Seton Hall was picked to finish fourth in the East Division. The Pirates received 36 points in the poll and sit behind third-place St. John's (40 points), second-place Providence (56 points) and first-place Georgetown (66 points).
• The Pirates finished last season in second place in the BIG EAST standings after amassing 17 points during conference play. The second place finish in the program's best since winning the regular season title back in 1991, while the 17 points in league action were the program's most since 2006.

FOLLOW
All BEDN events can be seen on FloSports, one of the leading streaming services in the world. Special Seton Hall pricing is available only through this link for fans who want to subscribe to watch Seton Hall events, home and away, as well as all other live events on the FloSports platform. Fans with a .edu school address can purchase a subscription for $6.99 per month, and all other fans can purchase a subscription for $12.50 per month. The non-Seton Hall pricing on FloSports is normally $29.99 per month.

The link to watch all Seton Hall Men's Soccer games can be found here.

 

[MooneyHall07]

3-3 Final.

This game came down to the very last seconds, with the final ten minutes featuring three goals alone (all goals came in the second half), and one controversial no-call on Seton Hall for alleged handball. It was 2-1 Villanova until Agustin Resch scored the equalizer on a great pass from Tomas Nunez to make it 2-2. Immediately after the goal, the Villanova goalie knocked Nunez from behind down to the ground out of frustration. There was no yellow card given; both players shook hands shortly thereafter.

Not more than 2 minutes later Villanova inexplicably marched down the field, one of their players broke away and scored at the 84th minute to take a 3-2 lead.

This game was extremely competitive and extremely chippy: there were 10 yellow cards in the game. Villanova made a crucial mistake at 86:19 when one of their players took Andrea Borg to the turf when he attempted to play a pass, giving Seton Hall the opportunity for a penalty kick. Borg took advantage to score the equalizer, making it 3-3. Seton Hall had a chance in the 89th minute but could not get a good shot on goal and the match ended in a tie.

The controversial no-call for handball came about around the 88th minute, when Villanova claimed that Seton Hall stopped their attack and cleared the ball when one of our players committed a handball to take it out of the air mid-kick. The replay clearly showed no handball, as the ball hit the player on the elbow, and in fact the player clearly tried to move his forearm and hand away from the ball to avoid the contact. Nonetheless, at the end of the match you could hear chants of "handball" from the Villanova crowd, and one particularly teed off lady who could be heard screaming at the ref "how could you miss that handball?!"

 

[Halldan1]

Borg's Late PK Salvages 3-3 Draw at Villanova - Seton Hall University Athletics

Villanova, Pa. – In a match that featured a late flurry of goals, the Pirates used a late penalty kick goal from Andrea Borg (Sliema, Malta) to earn a ...

shupirates.com

Borg's Late PK Salvages 3-3 Draw at Villanova​

Box

SHU 3 VU 3 MSOC BOX 10.7 - Seton Hall University Athletics

SHU 3 VU 3 MSOC BOX 10.7

shupirates.com

Villanova, Pa. – In a match that featured a late flurry of goals, the Pirates used a late penalty kick goal from Andrea Borg (Sliema, Malta) to earn a 3-3 draw against Villanova on Saturday afternoon. All six goals were scored in the second half, with three of them coming inside the final eight minutes of the match.

How it Happened
Despite no goals coming in the opening 45 minutes, the first half did not come without scoring chances. Villanova entered the half outshooting Seton Hall, 8-7, with five of those attempts steered towards goal. Mats Roorda (Groningen, Netherlands) was tasked with making several saves to keep the home side off the board.





Villanova finally broke through on a goal by Dominic Cyriacks in the 50th minute to take a 1-0 lead, however it would not last for long. Just 1:13 later, Jared Smith (Longmeadow, Mass.) got his head on the other end of a corner kick swung in by James Boote (Southampton, England). Smith's shot got past Wildcats' goalkeeper Kent Dickey to level the match at 1-1.





The Wildcats would soon retake the lead, as a perfectly placed shot from Vincent Petrera in the 62nd minute gave the hosts a 2-1 lead. Villanova seemed poised to hold on as the match entered the final 10 minutes, however chaos would ensue instead. The Pirates applied heavy pressure after the 80th minute, eventually finding an equalizer from Agustin Resch (Arata, Argentina) in the 83rd minute to tie the match at 2-2.





Villanova would punch back less than two minutes later, as Petrera evaded his defender in the box and picked the back post with a shot to put the Wildcats back ahead in the 84th minute. Once again, the Pirates' backs were against the wall.

In the 87th minute, Borg leapt in the air to attempt to play a pass into the penalty area and was taken to the turf by Kyle Dixon. This prompted a whistle from the head referee, giving The Hall another late chance to tie things up. Borg stepped up confidently to the spot and drove a shot right down the middle for his fourth goal of the season.





News & Notes

• With Resch's and Borg's equalizing goals after the 80th minute, the Pirates have now scored nine game-tying/game-winning goals in the 80th minute or later since the start of last season.
• The Pirates scored twice inside the final 10 minutes of a match for the first time since Sept. 17, 2022, when they did so in a 2-2 draw at Xavier.
• Borg's goal was his fourth of the season, setting a new career-high.
• The Pirates' 18 total shots are a new season-high.

Up Next
The Pirates return to Owen T. Carroll Field on Tuesday night for their non-conference finale against Princeton at 6:56 p.m.

 

[catholicman]

Road wins are difficult but we were on the ropes to an inferior team. We havent been playing well lately. Giving up late goals, as at Harvard, is inexcusable.

 

[PJVegas]

2 words to describe this game: BAD tie. 😰