St. John’s soccer steals point in double overtime draw against Villanova

St. John’s soccer stole a point on the road against Villanova in a double-overtime thriller 

The St. John’s soccer team got a late goal on the road against the Villanova Wildcats to preserve a draw in a double-overtime thriller that finished by a score of 2-2.

The tie moves the Red Storm to 5-2-1 overall on the season and 2-2-1 in Big East play.

St. John’s currently sits fourth in the conference’s standings, but that is outside of the top two spots which qualify for the Big East Tournament.

However, the Johnnies are in the thick of the race for those spots as they are only a game back from Providence in second place and the Johnnies still have to play the Friars twice, if its postponed meeting at Belson is rescheduled, and the UConn Huskies who are right above them in third place.

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Teams are only battling for second place as the Georgetown Hoyas have run away with the conference this season sitting at 6-0 in Big East play, so potential games against Providence and UConn are critical for the Red Storm down the stretch of the season.

Despite missing out on an opportunity to jump up into second place with a win, the Red Storm showed some character as it was down on two separate occasions and were able to at least preserve the draw.

The game started off very passive as the first real opportunity for either side came in the 20th minute from St. John’s Ava Collins, but her shot was saved by Villanova’s Megan McClay.

The Wildcats would take the lead in the 22nd minute through a header from midfielder Reagan Smith.

St. John’s soccer has strong second half

St. John’s would head into the half down 1-0, but started off the 2nd half on the front foot as redshirt senior Zsani Kajan had the chance to tie the game on a penalty kick just four minutes into the half but it was saved to keep the game at 1-0.

Kajan would make up for her penalty kick miss in the 53rd minute to tie the game up for her third goal of the season.

Then, 11 minutes later the Wildcats would retake the lead through sophomore forward Makayla Stadler.

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Down 2-1 in the closing minutes of the game it looked like the Red Storm were going to suffer a tough loss on the road, but with just seven minutes left in the match Kajan would assist freshman midfielder Ava Collins for her second goal of the season to send the game to overtime.

After two 10-minute overtime periods, neither side could find a breakthrough with the game ending in a 2-2 tie and both teams splitting the points.

Both Collins and Kajan were named in the Big East’s weekly honors with Collins earning the Freshman of the Week Award and Kajan landing on the conference’s weekly Honor Roll for their performances.

St. John’s will next take on the Seton Hall Pirates in New Jersey on Thursday at 6:00pm EST looking for their tenth straight win against the Hall, dating back to 2011.