St. John’s soccer picks up two wins to close out home stand

St. John’s soccer takes down Villanova and Seton Hall to continue its flying start to the season

The St. John’s soccer team continued its hot start to the season with wins over Villanova and Seton Hall to kick off Big East play.

Braving the cold and windy conditions at Belson Stadium, the Johnnies pulled out a narrow overtime win over the Villanova Wildcats on Thursday afternoon.

The Red Storm dominated the game forcing the Wildcats to sit deep for practically the entire match as St. John’s launched wave after wave of pressure onto the Villanova net.

The Johnnies outshot Villanova by 20 with nine shots on goal for the Red Storm including three shots on goal for Preseason Offensive Player of the Year Zsani Kajan, while Villanova just had five shots on net.

As many chances as the Red Storm had they had nothing to show for it.

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The two biggest chances to score came in the second half with sophomore midfielder Isabella Aviza hit the far post in the 49th minute on a shot from the right side of the box.

Then, in the 75th minute, St. John’s hit the woodwork once again on a shot by red-shirt sophomore midfielder Addison Hornsey from point-blank range.

Nonetheless, 90 minutes wasn’t enough to find a winner in this game.

It took a bit of time, but the Red Storm finally found the game-winner ten minutes into extra-time thanks to freshman defender Frederique St.-Jean steering home the rebound after Kajan’s free-kick was tipped onto the cross-bar.

St. John’s soccer tries to continue its winning ways

On Sunday, St. John’s played host to Seton Hall and had to deal with being in the unfamiliar position of having to come from behind, something that the Red Storm had not experienced this season.

After giving up the first goal of the game to the Pirates in the 30th minute, the Red Storm responded quickly in the 43rd minute thanks to a long-range effort from Maia Cabrera from outside of the box, which is an early-season favorite for the goal of the year.

The Johnnies continued to search for a winner in the second half, getting off five shots in the second period but needed extra time in order to be settled.

In extra-time, it took just six minutes for Zsani Kajan to slot a Maia Cabrera through pass to give the Red Storm the 2-1 win.

The goal was Kajan’s ninth game-winning goal in her career with the Red Storm.

The two wins means the Red Storm stay perfect on the season, moving to 5-0 overall and 2-0 in conference play.

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It is the first time St. John’s has started a season off 5-0 since 2013. The Red Storm have already matched their win total from 2019, showing how much improvement this team has made.

St. John’s will next head out on the road for the first time this season to take on the UConn Huskies on Thursday at 2:00pm EST.

St. John’s played UConn twice in its time in the American Athletic Conference with the teams splitting both meetings, with the most recent one coming in 2017.