St. John’s men’s, women’s soccer post combined undefeated week

The Johnnies men’s and women’s soccer squads put an end to nonconference play with a 2-0 week at home for the men and a 1-0 week away before their home match against Central Connecticut was canceled due to COVID-19 protocols.

Men’s Soccer

With the exception of a match held later in September against Princeton, the men wrapped up their non-conference schedule 2-0 to break the .500 threshold for the first time all year.

St. John’s 3 | Boston University 2

The Johnnies opened the week with a match closer on the scoreboard than the team would have liked, but they scrapped their way to a win in an overtime period to come away with a win.

Senior M Einar Lye kept with a theme both the men’s and women’s teams seem to like: scoring early. Lye found the back of the net in the 6^th minute of the match for his first goal of the season and was assisted by M Brandon Knapp and D Andrew Bennett.

Lye wasn’t done as he scored just six minutes later to tally his second goal of the season and game. Lye’s insurance run was assisted by D Lucas Bartlett and fellow Norwegian M Adrian Roseth.

The match calmed down for almost the next hour before Boston’s Brian Hernandez scored in the 65^th minute and sneaking the tying goal in before the horn in the 84^th minute.

The Johnnies held an advantage in shots by a margin of 15-5 and required much less work from their goalie, Luka Gavran as he tallied just one save to the five tallied by BU.

While the game went to overtime, the team dealt with BU in short order as Knapp buried a PK 22 seconds into the frame to end the match.

St. John’s 1 | Columbia 0

Following their first winning streak of the year, the Johnnies beat the Lions of Columbia University more on the field than they did on the scoreboard.

The lone goal of the match came near the end of the first half when D Lucas Bartlett scored in the 43^rd minute assisted by M Atila Ashrafi.

The Johnnies outshot the Lions 18-7 and won the shots on goal battle 7-0. The Johnnies, beneficiaries of great defending, allowed 0 shots for G Luka Gavran to save over the course of 90 minutes. The shutout is Gavran’s 3^rd in 6 games and gives the Johnnies some much-needed momentum moving into conference play.

The team will travel to Cincinnati to take on the Xavier Musketeers for their only match next week on September 18^th at 7 pm.

Women’s Soccer

St. John’s 3 | Delaware 0

The Johnnies traveled to Newark, Delaware to take on the Blue Hens of the University of Delaware. While the game was well matched, the Johnnies were beneficiaries of another phenomenal game from F Zsani Kajan to put them above the Hens in a statistically even game.

Kajan broke in the scoring early as she does with a 9th-minute goal that would end up being the game-winner. Kajan’s first goal would be assisted by M Jessica Garziano for her 3^rd assist of the season.

Kajan wasn’t done scoring for the half (or even half-hour) as she notched her 2^nd goal of the match 11 minutes later assisted by Nicole Gordon in the 20^th minute.

Sophomore M Ava Collins finished the scoring for the Johnnies with a 2^nd insurance goal in the 59^th minute assisted by Kajan. The goal was Collins’ 2^nd of the year and helped Kajan notch her 20^th point thus far in the season, 15 ahead of the next closest Johnny.

The Ladies were unable to complete a full 2-0 week after Central Connecticut couldn’t make the journey to Queens because of COVID-19 restrictions.

The St. John’s women’s soccer squad also only has one match in the coming week as they travel to New Haven to take on the Yale Bulldogs on September 19^th to finish their slate of non-conference matches for the year.