The Villanova men’s soccer team is in the middle of a five-game losing streak which started almost two weeks ago at the Penn State Nike Challenge and included a home loss to nationally-ranked St. Johns University last Wednesday and two other Big East opponents.

Villanova returned to action this past Wednesday against conference powerhouse, Rutgers University, losing 5-0 on the afternoon.

Guy Abrahamson started the scoring 23 minutes in on a shot from outside the box that went upper 90 on Teesdale. Less then five minutes later, Steve Loverso ran down the left side of the field and was able to bury a shot from point blank range on Teesdale.

Sam Castellanos finished the first half scoring on a beautiful shot from 22 yards out, sending the Scarlet nights into halftime with a 3-0 lead.

The second half was all Rutgers as well.

Sherif El-Baily added two of his own goals, to finish out the game’s scoring at 5-0.

The Rutgers game made it four contests in a row that the Wildcats have not scored a goal.

“We need to find someone who can score for us,” junior Dan Massimini said.

The Wildcats hope to end the losing streak this Sunday, when they take on Hofstra University on West campus.

“Hofstra has big players up front, and play a lot of long ball, but I think we can do well against them,” Leaman said.

Prior to the Rutgers loss, the Wildcats traveled to Blacksburg, Va. on Saturday to take on the Hokies of Virginia Tech.

After senior defender Tony Rod came out of the game because of an injury, the Hokies scored two quick goals within three minutes of each other.

Ken Jonmaire scored 34 minutes into the first half, followed by a John Havas goal soon after.

Lasse Mertins finished the scoring 73 minutes into the game, making the final score a 3-0 loss for the Wildcats.

Taking the loss in net for Villanova was senior Jon Williams.

“Some would say that we just didn’t come out to play that day,” senior captain Steve Leaman said.

The Wildcats will be looking to turn the tide and reverse their current losing trend when they take on Hofstra at noon on Sunday at the Villanova Soccer Complex.