St. John’s soccer falls to Seton Hall in crushing double OT loss

The St. John’s soccer team fell in double overtime in a backbreaking loss to Seton Hall

The St. John’s soccer team lost 3-2 in the final seconds of double overtime against Seton Hall in a devastating loss that could derail the Red Storm’s season.

The Johnnies came into this match looking to gain some ground on Providence and UConn to get into second place in the East Division, which represents the last remaining spot to qualify for the Big East Tournament.

However, Thursday night felt like a trap game in playing the lowly Pirates with UConn, Georgetown, and Providence looming to finish out the regular season.

The loss moves the Red Storm to 5-3-1 overall (2-3-1 Big East) play as it was the first conference win for the Pirates this season, who now sit at 2-6 overall (1-6 in Big East).

This was also the Red Storm’s first loss to the Pirates in 10 years.

The game overall was a back and forth affair with both teams getting their opportunities, as the match finished with shots 28-13 in favor of the Red Storm.

St. John’s had 10 shots on goal compared to just five for Seton Hall.

The game was passive in the first frame as both teams headed into the halftime locker room scoreless, but the pace picked up in the second half as four goals were scored in the span of 12 minutes.

Coming out of halftime Seton Hall took a shocking lead in the 52nd minute through junior forward Naomi Welch as she headed the ball past Red Storm goalie Naya Lipkins.

St. John’s responded quickly with two goals in the span of a minute starting in the 58th as redshirt senior Zsani Kajan tied things up with her fourth goal of the season with a brilliant piece of individual play as she took on a Seton Hall defender and unleashed a curling shot that just got past Grace Gordon.

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Then, in the 59th sophomore Jessica Garziano gave the Red Storm a 2-1 lead with her sixth goal of the season which is tied for second in the conference.

The goal was assisted by redshirt sophomore Addison Hornsey, her first assist of the season.

Just when it looked like St. John’s were taking control of the game, the Pirates responded in the 64th minute through senior midfielder Laura Hooper.

Both teams couldn’t find a winner in the rest of the 2nd half as they headed into overtime.

The stalemate continued as double overtime was needed and right at the end of the period, heartbreak struck for the Red Storm.

With just 21 seconds left in the game, Seton Hall launched a cross to the back post as Lipkins came out of her net to claim the ball, but couldn’t due to the pressure from the Pirates and Hooper was there to slot it home into an empty net for the game-winning goal and her second of the match.

The three goals were the most the St. John’s soccer team has conceded in a game this season.

St. John’s soccer still has a potential to finish strong.

Despite the loss to the Pirates on Thursday, St. John’s still has the potential to get to 2nd place if it has a strong end to the season.

However, the margin for error is much tighter for the Red Storm.

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Since St. John’s is facing off against all opponents ahead of them in the standings in the last three games of the regular season, there is a potential to grab the 2nd spot in the division, but the Red Storm may have to sweep, or at the very least win two, to have any sort of shot to get to the Big East Tournament.

That stretch starts on Sunday when the Red Storm comes back to Queens to take on UConn at 2:00pm EST.