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St. John’s soccer falls in conference opener against Seton Hall

By Michael Szabo

St. John's soccer(Photo by Josef Bollwein/SEPA.Media /Getty Images)
St. John's soccer(Photo by Josef Bollwein/SEPA.Media /Getty Images) /
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St. John’s soccer takes its first loss of the season on the road against Seton Hall. 

The St. John’s soccer team lost for the first time this season on Saturday in their conference opener against Seton Hall by a score of 1-0.

The loss moves the Red Storm to 2-1 on the season after wins against Saint Joseph’s and Stony Brook to open up the year.

St. John’s played from behind for most of the game after giving up the only goal of the match in the 2nd minute to junior midfielder Paavo Riihjarv. The Pirates were able to get six shots off in just the first 16 minutes.

Junior forward/midfielder Tani Oluwaseyi, who has got off to a great start to the season, flashed a shot wide in the 16th minute. Then, in the second half sophomore defender Jared Juleau sent a header just wide of the Seton Hall net in the 59th minute.

ALSO READ: St. John’s defeats Sacred Heart in comfortable outing

Other than those chances, it was a poor offensive performance from the Red Storm who only managed to get one shot on goal the entire game compared to Seton Hall’s eight.

The scoreline could have been bigger if not for some quality saves from goalie Jan Hoffelner.

The loss breaks a five-game unbeaten streak against the Pirates and St. John’s was undefeated in 10 of their last 11 meetings going back to 2007.

St. John’s soccer has to avoid similar losses

Saturday’s loss was a defeat that the Johnnies really would not like to have on its resume going forward.

In a tough mini-division of the Big East that contains the defending National Champions in Georgetown and Providence, which beat the Red Storm in the Big East Tournament Semifinals in 2019.

St. John’s cannot afford to have losses like Saturday’s if the Red Storm want to be a high seed in the NCAA Tournament and reach their ultimate goal of winning the National Championship.

ALSO READ: St. John’s defeats Stony Brook in high scoring affair

The saving grace is that the Johnnies able to play each team in the mini-division twice, which doesn’t happen in a normal season. Usually, each program only gets one crack at its conference opponents in the regular season.

St. John’s will get a chance at revenge against the Pirates at Belson Stadium on March 17 and a victory is imperative.

The Red Storm will next welcome UConn back to the Big East Conference on Wednesday in Queens at 5:00pm EST.