St. John’s Soccer Roundup: 9/20

The St. John’s women’s soccer team wrapped up their non-conference schedule with a 1-0 victory over La Salle on Sunday, while the men’s soccer team opened their conference schedule with a scoreless draw at Marquette.

Shea Connors scored the only goal of the weekend for the Red Storm, who improved to 5-1-3. In the 82^nd minute, she received the ball on the left side of the box from Lucy Whipp and the junior from New Haven, CT was able to curl the ball past the La Salle goalkeeper for the decisive goal.

St. John’s had control for most of the game as they outshot the Explorers 17-10 and had eight corners compared to three for La Salle.

In the first half, they had multiple chances to put the ball in net. Very early in the game, Samie Scaffidi seemed to have just the goalie to beat but was taken down from behind in the box with no call. Later in the half, Scaffidi played a beautiful cross to Connors right in front of the net, but she was unable to handle it cleanly and her shot was ultimately saved by the goalkeeper.

Senior Diana Poulin continued her strong season with another shutout, her sixth of the season. Her goals against average went down to .31.

The Johnnies continue Big East Play when they travel across the river to play Seton Hall on Saturday, September 24^th at 2 p.m. It can be streamed on the Big East Digital Network.

The men’s team battled with Marquette on Saturday that ultimately ended in a scoreless draw. The result puts the Johnnies record at 3-1-2 on the season.

The Golden Eagles outshot the Red Storm 18-14, but St. John’s did have the edge in shots on goal 7-4 and corner kicks 8-4.

After being outshot 6-1 in the first half, the Johnnies came out strong in the second half. The first real chance they had came in the 56^th minute when Junior Harry Cooksley played a corner into the box that bounced around before finally being cleared by a Marquette player.

Cooklsey had a chance himself in the 60^th minute when he took a free kick from just outside the 18-yard box and got it around the wall headed for the bottom right corner. However, Marquette keeper Luis Barraza dove to make the key save.

Near the end of the first overtime period, Sophomore Mike Prosuk put a shot on goal but it was tipped by a defender and went just over the crossbar. On the ensuing corner kick, Cooksley found Simon Tchoukriel in the box but the Frenchman’s shot went just wide.

In the second overtime, Marquette had one of their best chances of the game when Freshman Luka Prpa tried to chip one over Andrew Withers was able to punch it away with his left hand with just enough force to keep it from going in the net.

This was the second straight shutout for Withers, a redshirt Sophomore from New Zealand, as St. John’s seems to have found their goalie after going with a multi-keeper game plan earlier in the season.

The Red Storm will go back to non-conference play in their next game when they take on Quinnipiac at 7p.m. at Belson Stadium tonight. The game will also be streamed on ESPN3 and the WatchESPN app.