Drexel & La Salle win; Temple and Penn draw at Philly Soccer Six event

Spring college soccer was in full swing Saturday at Penn Park in West Philadelphia as all six Division 1 teams in the area played a triple header.

The annual Philly Soccer Six event kicked off at 1 p.m. with host Penn playing Temple to a scoreless draw.

Drexel got second half goals from Erik Alexandersson and Xavier Bou Hernandez to top Saint Joseph’s 2-0 in the second game while a second half goal from Hayden Criollo was enough to give the Explorers a 1-0 win over the reigning regular season Philly Soccer Six champs Villanova.

Nova was missing several key players in the match, including offensive playmakers Miguel Polley and Zach Zandi (West Chester, Pa.) but did have an attacking player who missed all of his senior season in the fall in Max Kroschwitz. Kroschwitz (Pipersville, Pa.) is one of four fifth-year seniors who will be returning for the Wildcats this fall.

The La Salle/Nova match also featured two sets of twin brothers who played in the Philadelphia Union Academy: Villanova’s Shane Bradley and Conor Bradley (Havertown, Pa.) and La Salle’s Cameron Keys and Garrett Keys (Whitehall, Pa.). All four were in the starting lineup on Saturday.

While results are the least of the coach’s worries during the spring exhibition season, it was Drexel that had the best showing on the score sheet.

Their offense was clicking in the second half against Saint Joseph’s, which played their first spring match on Saturday.

Alexandersson headed home the first goal off a corner kick from Dragons workhorse Dakota Peterson and Hernandez flashed a pretty piece of skill to bring a ball bouncing around near the box down and onto his right foot for a shot that beat the St. Joe’s keeper to the far post.

The Hawks were able to create some chances through Derek MacKinnon (Washington Township, N.J.) and Matt Crawford (Bensalem, Pa.) but despite a late push were unable to get one past Jacob Jordan (Philadelphia, Pa.).

Temple were held scoreless for the second straight game after a 1-0 loss to Bethlehem Steel FC in early March. The draw was also the second straight for Penn, after opening their spring season with a 1-1 draw against Pitt at home.