St. John’s has had its troubles this year at home but in Wednesday night’s game against Stony Brook all was forgiven as it won its first home game of the year on the first goal that the team has scored at home.

In the 71^st minute, the questions and concerns for the team seemed to be answered, as Holly Ryder went up the middle of the box, kicked the ball in the direction off the goal and it deflected off a sliding defender’s foot, and ended up in the back of the net to give St. John’s (3-3-1) its first home goal and first home win of the young season. “I saw the gap and just went,” Ryder said. “We needed this win to put us in a positive direction and to fuel our fire.”

St. John’s coach Ian Stone commended Ryder.

“Holly is really finding the nose for the goal, she burrowed through three defenders and got it done,” Stone said.

There is great relief also amongst the team that they have the losing streak at home off its shoulders. St. John’s dominated possession throughout the game and had several chances to score earlier but they stuck with it and got it done. The Red Storm got excellent play by Erin Henderson in the midfield as well as Natasha Lee up front and Andrea Coukoulis on defense. Jaime Beran and Rebecca Capinera combined for the clean slate.

The win was its first home win of the year after two overtime losses, as well as its first home goal of the year. The team entered the game knowing it would be their last tune-up before Big East play begins Saturday against Syracuse.

The first half was filled with multiple opportunities to score for the Red Storm but they just couldn’t seem to get the right bounce. In the eighth minute of action, Erin Henderson took a shot in the box and Stony Brook’s Cindy Bennett made a great save to deflect it off the crossbar. Another opportunity came minutes later in the 15^th when Kati Shantz flicked the ball towards the net off a beautiful cross by Lee. Again, though Bennett proved she would not be beat easily as she saved it. Stony Brook had one good chance in the first half in the 35^th minute of play when Tiffany Fasullo took a bizarre shot that hit the post off a corner kick. That was the biggest threat of the first half by Stony Brook. This marked the fifth scoreless half by the Red Storm and you could feel they were getting anxious and the tension was rising as second half play began.