The Wildcats rallied from an early three-goal deficit to defeat the Marquette Golden Eagles by a final of 10-9 in overtime. Junior Christian Cuccinello ran in, dove, and scored the game winner with 1:31 left in the first overtime. This was the Wildcats first win against the Golden Eagles since 2014 season, and the first time Marquette has lost after leading in the 3rd quarter. The Golden Eagles jumped out to a three goal lead less than five minutes in. Christian Cuccinello brought the Cats back with back-to-back goals just over a minute apart to make the Marquette lead just one. Kyran Clarke, who was the only Golden Eagle to have more than one goal, netted his first with just over five to go in the first. Jake Froccaro answered with an unassisted rocket but Marquette got one more to fall before the end of the quarter to make the score 5-3. The second quarter consisted of just four goals, two by each team. Marquette scored the first then Villanova’s Cuccinello netted his third to complete a hat trick at the 4:17 mark of the second quarter during a man up opportunity. Next it was sophomore defensive midfielder TJ Comizio who scored his first career goal on a pass from Connor Kirst. Clarke scored his scored during a Golden Eagles extra man opportunity to make the score at half 7-5 Marquette. Villanova started out hot in the second half scoring the first two goals to tie the game up for the first time. Jake Froccaro found Timmy Hardy for his second goal of the season and minutes later Cuccinello netted his fourth of the day to make it seven all. Marquette answered with two goals of their own one by Andy DeMichiei, who had four points on the day, and the other by Ryan McNamara. The Golden Eagles led 9-7 with just over two minutes to go in the third. The rest of the game was all Villanova, Jack Curran would net the final two goals in regulation to tie things up and head to overtime. His first was with just over a minute to go in the third, the second on a pass from Cuccinello at the 4:05 mark in the 4th. Curran’s goal would be the only goal scored during the final quarter, the Wildcats were able to keep Marquette scoreless for the final 19 minutes. In overtime, Marquette won the faceoff but a turnover by midfielder Tanner Thomson was picked up by Comizio to give Villanova the ball with just over 3 minutes remaining. After a wide shots by Joey Froccaro and a Jake Froccaro shot that was saved, Cuccinello drove and scored the game winner at the 1:31 mark to give the Wildcats their first BIG EAST win of the season. This is the second overtime win for Villanova this season their first was against Maryland on March 18th. Sophomore goalkeeper Nick Testa played every minute between the posts and picked up his fourth win of the year. He finished with 11 saves, three of those coming in the fourth quarter. Junior Luke Palmadesso returned to the faceoff dot for the first time since February 28th and went 4-for-9. Joey Froccaro had the same success and collected two ground balls. As a team the Wildcats had 22 ground balls and three caused turnovers. Comizio scooped up five and had a caused turnover, while Kirst had three ground balls. Now 6-4 on the season and 1-0 in the BIG EAST, the Wildcats are riding a five game winning streak. Villanova hopes to keep this going as the travel to Denver, Colorado to take on the Pioneers Sunday, April 9th. Faceoff is set for 2 p.m. ET and will be broadcasted on FS1.