The St. John’s women’s soccer team continued their unbeaten campaign with victories in two away games this past week. The team defeated Yale 2-0 on Friday at Reese Stadium. They played Loyola Maryland to a tie of 1-1 on Sunday.
Against Yale, the Johnnies were led by goals from both Samie Scaffidi and Claudia Cagnina. Shea Connors assisted on both of the Red Storm goals.
The first goal of the game came in the seventh minute. A cross from Connors from the right side bounced around in the box before finding Christina Bellero. Bellaro played a ball outside to Scaffidi, who put it in from 20 yards off of the left post.
Alexa Dolgos nearly put the Red Storm up by another just before intermission when she had a shot go just over the crossbar in the 45th minute.
The second and final goal of the game was scored in the 66th minute. It began again with Connors, who fired a shot from the right side that found Cagnina on a rebound off of the cross bar. Cagnina’s first shot was blocked but the second found the back of the net, putting the Red Storm up 2-0.
St. John’s offense had nine of their thirteen shots on target. The defensive unit only allowed seven shots total.
“This was a very solid whole-team performance against a talented Yale squad,” Head coach Ian Stone said in a press release. “The girls have worked tremendously hard in practice this week and it showed tonight.”
Goaltender Diana Poulin notched her NCAA-leading fourth shutout of the season. The two-time reigning Big East Goalkeeper of the Year recorded two saves for the Red Storm. Poulin now is second in school history, behind Kristin Russell (2008-11), with 24 clean sheets for her career. Poulin is only eight shutouts away from tying for top spot on that list.
On Sunday against Loyola (MD), the Red Storm outshot the Greyhounds by a 13-2 margin and registered 11 corner kicks to the Greyhounds’ one.
In the eighth minute Mia Sardella sent a corner kick into the six-yard box that was put in the net by Nicole Wahlig. The goal spoiled a scoreless streak of 304 minutes and 29 seconds by Poulin. This set Poulin’s goals against average to a stellar 0.22.
The Red Storm countered by scoring in the 39th minute. Cagnina sent a cross into the box after a streak down the right side that found Christina Bellero, who pushed it past the keeper.
In regulation play, the Johnnies outshot the Greyhounds 8-2 and had seven corner kicks to Loyola’s one. In the two overtime periods, St. John’s had five shots and four corner kicks. They also saw two chances to score in the second overtime period on two corner kicks.
The first was made by Bellaro and was blocked in front. The second kick saw Martinov send a header just wide of the goal.
Next up, the Johnnies will head to Portland, Oregon this weekend for the Nike Portland Invitational.
