Catania crushed Trapani in a Sicilian derby by a 4-1 scoreline at the Stadio Angelo Massimino in Serie B action on Monday night.
Trapani’s Christian Terlizzi scored for both the Granata and the Etnei, while Raffaele Schiavi had a traditional brace of his own and Catania’s Lucas Castro added his third of the season.
The victory lifts a struggling Catania side who have labored to navigate a competitive Serie B out of the playout spots as they look to cement their position and rebuild for a run at Serie A next season.
The visitors jumped on top within the first 10 minutes when a Catania defender stuck out to his hand to block a seemingly innocuous cross into the area and Terlizzi sent Jean Gillet the wrong the way in the ensuing spot kick.
The Rossazzurri were pounding Lys Gomis’s net searching for the equalizer but the Senegalese man kept frustrating the hosts including a double save where a deflected shot forced Gomis to rebalance himself to make an acrobatic save. Gomis then picked himself off the ground, moved across his goal and jumped high to frustrate Emanuele Calaio whose header seemed destined for goal.
The Granata luck would not hold in the second half as Catania immediately scored when Alessandro Rosina curled in a free-kick to the far post and Schiavi jumped to volley the cross past Gomis. The floodgates opened minutes later when Terlizzi inadvertently poked a ball into the net after a mad scramble in front of goal.
Castro was fed a wonderfully weighted through ball and scored on a nice run off the outside of the boot while in stoppage time Lorenzo del Prete hit a thunder strike which rattled off the crossbar and rebounded right to Schiavi who headed in his second into an empty net.
League leaders Carpi earned their 19th clean sheet of the season and downed Cittadella 1-0 on Antonio Di Gaudio’s 6th goal. The Biancorossi have a 14-point lead over Bologna and are making plans to celebrate their first promotion to Serie A.
Frosinone sealed a crucial 2-1 victory over Pescara dominating the Delfini at the Stadio Adriatico for most of the match and now sit three points away from second place.
Livorno and Pro Vercelli played to a 3-3 draw earning Christian Panucci his second positive result as Amaranto coach but the former Azzurri international will rue the missed opportunity to solidify their playoff position against the struggling Leoni as Livorno needed a late penalty to grab a share of the points.
Modena tasted victory for the first time in five weeks defeating Virtus Entella 2-0 behind first half goals from Francesco Signori and Luca Garritano despite playing with 10 men after Luca Nizzetto earned a red card after 10 minutes after entering the match.
Meanwhile, Bari and Crotone, Brescia and Bologna, and Lanciano and Latina all settled for 1-1 draws while Spezia fell at 0-1 at home to Ternana.
