The No. 12/12 ranked St. John’s Red Storm men’s soccer team’s scoreless streak was snapped as they fell at No. 2/2 Connecticut Huskies 2-0 in front of 5,100 fans.
The Red Storm’s scoreless streak ended at 647:04 when Connecticut freshman forward Allando Matheson sent a header past St. John’s goalkeeper Rafael Diaz in the 74th minute. It was the fourth longest scoreless streak in school history.
The Johnnies (5-2-1, 0-1-0 Big East) also had their streak of six consecutive shutouts broken. They were one game shy of tying a school record.
“I thought we played very well for the first 70 minutes so it was unfortunate to give up a set-piece goal to a Connecticut team that is arguably the best in the country,” said head coach Dave Masur in a press release on redstormsports.com. “Playing on the road is always tough, especially in front of a packed house like they had here tonight. Hopefully we can learn from this experience as we go forward.”
Multiple calls placed to Masur by the Torch went unreturned.
It was a tale of two halves for the Red Storm as they stayed even with the Huskies through the first 45 minutes. After halftime though, it was all Connecticut. The Huskies picked up their offensive attack by putting nine shots on Diaz.
Diaz made all seven of his saves in the second half. UConn’s Andre Blake had one save on a strong kick 18 yards out from junior forward Andres Vargas.
St. John’s senior midfielder Pable Battuto Punyed sent a free kick into the box in the 87th minute trying to get the Storm on the board and send the game into overtime but a header by freshman midfielder Pascal Trappe sailed over the crossbar.
Connecticut (8-0-0, 1-0-0) outshot the Red Storm, 16-6, and held a 6-1 edge in corner kicks on the night.
Connecticut sophomore forward Mamadou Doudou Diouf added an insurance goal in the 90th minute. With only 37 seconds left Diouf chipped in the ball over a charging Diaz to seal the victory for the Huskies.
The Red Storm return to action on Sept. 28th when they play at Princeton in their penultimate non-conference game.
