The St. John’s men’s soccer team won Tuesday night, 2-0, over the Princeton Tigers thanks in large part to being more efficient with its shots with two goals in the first half, one coming from Sean Sepe and the other from Jimmy Mulligan.
The Red Storm (7-5-1, 0-3-1 Big East) took on the Tigers (4-6-1, 1-0-1 Ivy) in the Johnnies’ final non-conference game of the season. The St. John’s defense had a stellar night, led by goalie Rafael Diaz who got his fifth shutout of the year helping the team achieve its
victory over Princeton.
St. John’s head coach Dr. Dave Masur changed the team’s formation to a 4-4-2 setup to try and halt the Red Storm’s struggles with putting the ball in the back of the net.
“We have been playing a 4-4-2 or we will have three in the back,” head coach Dr. Dave Masur said. “Depending on how the other teams line up. When teams play with one striker we will generally play with the 4-4-2.”
The Johnnies’ difficulties scoring have been well documented in recent games as they’ve had a shot advantage of 63-20 in the last two games and only have three goals to show for that advantage.
“Sometimes it’s hard to score early, but we were able to grind the game out,” Jimmy Mulligan said. “We were able to get our momentum going early.”
The Red Storm seemed to shake off their goal scoring struggles as their leading goal scorer of the season, Sean Sepe, scored on a turnover by Princeton early in the first half. This was Sepe’s sixth goal of the season and only the Johnnies’ third shot of the game.
St. John’s scored again at the 33’ mark thanks to senior midfielder Jimmy Mulligan, his third of the season, on a deflection by Princeton goalie Seth MacMillan. The Red Storm went into the locker room at the half with a 2-0 lead on only six total shots.
The St. John’s men’s soccer team will play its next game on Saturday, Oct. 19 against conference opponent Xavier. The Red Storm will be looking for their first Big East win of the season.
“We need to be more resilient on the defensive end and make sure that we stay behind the ball,” Masur said. “We got to make a lot more simpler passes.”
