The St. John’s University women’s soccer team won their second straight to kick off the 2016 campaign with a 5-1 win over Fairfield University.
Five different players scored for the still undefeated Red Storm (4-0-2) in the team’s best offensive performance of the season. It was all five players’ first goals of the season.
“We worked really hard this week because we were frustrated with the couple of results last weekend where we dominated possession but we could not get the ball in the back of the net,” head coach Ian Stone after the game said.
“There are a lot of times when we will play really well on Belson, but to score five goals is always a special night.”
Junior Shea Connors got things going for the Red Storm with her first goal of the season on assists from sophomores Samie Scaffidi and Claudia Cagnina in the 11th minute.
Four minutes later and Connors was on the other end of scoring as she got the assist for senior Morgan Tinari to make it a 2-0 game.
St. John’s third goal came in the 36th minute on a header from sophomore Alexa Dolgos with an assist from Tinari to give the team a 3-0 lead entering the half.
Sophomore Lucy Whipp didn’t hesitate to continue the Red Storm’s dominant offensive performance as she made it 4-0 just over seven minutes into the second half, with an assist from freshman Senna Brennan.
The fifth goal of the night came from junior Maria Gonzalez Bullon as she booted a shot that sailed just past Fairfield’s goalie Jenna Pike to land into the upper-right hand corner of the net. Sophomore Christina Bellero picked up an assist on the goal.
Two minutes later, Fairfield scored its lone goal of the game to make it 5-1.
Senior goaltender Diana Poulin recorded 74 minutes of shutout action before being replaced by redshirt junior Sarah Chaides in the second half. It was the first time in her career that Chaides has seen game action for the Red Storm. Poulin, St. John’s all-time wins leader with 36, now has a goals against average of just 0.16 on the season.
The Red Storm’s win over the Stags tied the second-longest unbeaten streak to start a season in school history. The program record for the longest unbeaten streak to begin a campaign is eight, achieved twice in 2002 and 2007.
St. John’s will travel to the West Coast this weekend for the Nike Portland Invitational. The Red Storm will take on the University of Washington on Friday before playing the University of Portland on Sunday.
“Going out to the University of Portland, who have actually won a national championship in the past (2002 and 2005) and the University of Washington who is pretty much always in the NCAA Tournament is the kind of the challenge we need right now,” said Coach Stone.
“They don’t really need me to motivate them; they are such a driven group of players,” Stone said. “They’re ready for the next challenge and we’ll learn from it and move on.”
