The season is starting to slip away for St. John’s men’s soccer after a pair of
heartbreaking conference losses last week. First, they lost 1-0 to No. 6/2 Creighton
at home on Wednesday and then dropped a 3-2 decision at Providence. The Red
Storm have now lost three straight games after losing just once in its previous seven
games.
St. John’s (now 4-7-3, 1-4-0) fiercely battled Creighton, deadlocked for 90
minutes until the Blue Jays broke through in the waning moments on a free kick by
Fabian Herbers to escape with a 1-0 victory.
“I think 70-80 percent of it was very good,” head coach Dave Masur said. “We
were organized, we played good against a tough team, we moved the ball, we kept
the counter, we had some good ball movement at times. Keeper played really well,
kept us in the game, good composure in the back. On a whole, few minutes to go
against the second-ranked team in the country, and it’s 0-0.”
The Red Storm were outshot 17-7 and put just one shot on goal. Keeper
Jordan Stagmiller was the bright spot as he picked up six saves and was a brick wall
up until the 90th minute.
“Our idea was to win the game,” Masur said. “We’re deeply disappointed. I
think we’ve got to get more intensity and focus and concentrated efforts from many
of our guys to win games like that. It’s very hard to beat top-level teams or any
teams in the Big East. You have to have the right mentality and the right edges to do
that, and our edges just slipped away a little bit and bad things happen.”
On Saturday, the Red Storm fought back from a two-goal deficit on a pair
of second-half scores by senior defender Marco Bordon. Providence (8-2-1, 3-0-
1) took the lead back just moments later in the 80th minute on a header by Markus
Naglestad with a free kick. Luis Esteves missed the last potential tying chance in the
83rd minute.
“This was a tough game against a talented Providence squad,” Masur told
RedStormSports.com. “Our guys stayed with it tonight and showed a lot of character
to come back from being down two goals at halftime. Ultimately, however, it takes
a lot of energy and work to erase a two-goal deficit and we couldn’t maintain the
momentum after tying the score.”
The Friars outshot St. John’s 25-14, with 10 shots going on goal compared to
just four for the Red Storm. Stagmiller stopped seven of those 10 SOG.
This was St. John’s third consecutive heartbreaker against a top opponent, as
they gave up two second half goals in a loss at Marquette before similarly losing to
Creighton and Providence.
The Red Storm has just four games left in the regular season to earn a spot
in the Big East tournament. They have three games at Belson, where they are 4-2-1,
but they also play at No. 8 Georgetown.
