Frosinone smashed a short-handed Varese 4-1 on Monday night catapulting the Canarini to fourth place concluding week 32 in Serie B action at the Stadio Franco Ossola.
Federico Dionisi opened the scoring for Frosinone before Gianpietro Zecchin interrupted a Massimiliano Carlini brace for Varese’s only goal and Mario Santana finished off the destruction with his first goal of the campaign.
The die was cast inside the first 10 minutes for Varese, who came into the match losers of five straight seemingly headed for the drop, when captain Daniele Corti earned an early ejection. The referee cautioned Corti and the 34-year old was subsequently sent to the locker room for persistent arguing, drawing jeers from an upset Ossola crowd.
The Gialloazzurri smelled blood in the water and began to press their numerical advantage immediately. The hosts could only manage one long-range effort before a characteristic defensive error opened the floodgates.
A quarter hour after the ejection, Varese’s Francesco Luoni failed to follow Dionisis’s run into the box and it was an easy finish to the far post for his eighth goal on the campaign as Leopardi heads dropped.
Another lapse in concentration led to the second goal when Varese failed to clear their line and Carlini was left alone at the top of the area, inexplicably finding acres of space between a pair of defenders. The veteran attacker settled the ball easily and fired a right-footed rocket past a diving Filippo Perucchini.
Varese threatened to get back into the match before the stroke of half time when Antonini Culina fed Zecchin on a nicely weighted through-ball in the area which Zecchin latched onto and buried in the roof of Massimo Zappino’s net.
The hosts nearly drew level twice before finally succumbing when Culina’s effort hit the crossbar and Martino Borghese’s header sailed just high, wasting the last good looks the Leopardi would see all evening.
Frosinone exploited their advantage shortly afterward with a well-worked goal as four different players simply passed around a tired Varese defense and Carlini once again found himself close to goal with only Perucchini to beat.
A minute after entering Santana made a run to the far post and Arturo Lupoli crossed a ball to the former Napoli midfielder whose sliding finish wrapped up a terrific night for coach Roberto Stellone’s men who trail second place Bologna by only two points while Varese remain rooted at the foot of the table.
