The St. John’s Men’s Soccer team were close to victory but couldn’t seal the deal against the Princeton Tigers, ending 3-2 in the Tigers favor.
St. John’s senior forward Macoumba Ba broke through a discombobulated Tiger defense early, scoring a remarkable header in the seventh minute. Senior defender Thomas Lamaille’s fantastic cross assisted Ba’s third goal of the season.
The celebration didn’t last long as Princeton sophomore forward Daniel Ittycheria quickly tied the contest up with a help from junior forward Nico Nee and senior forward Ryan Winkler just one minute later.
From there, Princeton dominated control of the ball. Thanks to the Johnnies’ excellent defense inside the box and an outstanding outing from sophomore goalkeeper Alec McLachlan, Princeton couldn’t convert any opportunities for the remainder of the 45 minutes. In a half defined by short offensive bursts and stellar defenses, both teams went into halftime deadlocked.
After the end of the first half, both teams were relatively even on the stat sheet: Princeton had eight shots to St. John’s seven, both having three of those shots on goal and two shots being saved by their respective keepers.
In the second half, the goals came early. Princeton’s Ittycheria completed his impressive brace for scoring his second goal in the 52nd minute. St. John’s regained their offensive composure and answered with an equalizer shot from sophomore midfielder Connor Mucchetti coming in the 59th minute.
Exhaustion and attitude set in for the rest of the match with defenses bunkering down, shots missing and tempers flaring with three yellow cards being dealt within two minutes. Both benches could be heard bickering throughout the entire game but they were especially loud as the clock dwindled down.
But in the 87th minute, freshman forward Ian Nunez came through for the Tigers, splitting the defense and scoring the first goal of his career. That final goal went unanswered as the Johnnies were sent home with their third loss of the season.
The Johnnies look to bounce back against No. 4 Akron in their Big East home opener this Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at Belson Stadium.
