St. John’s soccer suffers frustrating home loss to Marist

The St. John’s soccer team lost to Marist on Saturday in a frustrating game for the Red Storm. 

On Saturday night at Belson Stadium the St. John’s soccer team suffered an extremely frustrating loss to Marist by a score of 1-0.

The loss sinks the Red Storm to a 1-2 record in the early goings of the season.

Nothing seemed to go right for St. John’s straight from the kickoff as the Red Foxes dominated the possession early, pinning the Johnnies back.

Marist would be rewarded for its pressure with a penalty call, albeit a penalty with many questions surrounding it, after just seven minutes and it would be converted by defender Huib Achterkamp for the only goal of the game.

ALSO READ: St. John’s dominates Albany in home opener

St. John’s would grow into the game after that point by gaining control of possession and having some really quality opportunities to answer back, but the Red Storm weren’t able to put them in the back of the net.

In the second half, the Johnnies would continue to push for the equalizer, forcing the Red Foxes to just sit back and defend its lead.

It looked like the Red Storm finally had that equalizer in the 63rd minute as Brandon Knapp tapped home an Atila Ashrafi cross, but it was ruled that Knapp was offsides and the goal was taken off the board.

Marist would get fantastic opportunities to increase its lead after Knapp’s disallowed goal got, but Luka Gavran would make three incredible saves in order to keep the Red Storm in the game.

Gavran had six saves overall in the game.

However, St. John’s could not take advantage of Gavran’s heroics, and Marist would hold on for the upset win.

St. John’s soccer sees extended streak come to end with loss

The loss broke a seven-game win streak against non-conference opponents at Belson Stadium for the Red Storm.

St. John’s had its opportunities as the Johnnies outshot Marist 17-16, but the Red Storm weren’t as efficient or threatening as the team only had one shot on goal as opposed to Marist’s eight.

ALSO READ: St. John’s gets commanding win over Lehigh

The Red Storm had many perfect opportunities that would have resulted in a slew of goals on the team’s best day, but the Johnnies lacked the necessary finishing touch to put those chances in the net and typically sent its shots off target.

St. John’s will now take on defending Atlantic-10 Conference Champions Fordham along with Rams head coach, Carlo Acquista, a former Red Storm player.

The match is scheduled for Monday at Belson Stadium at 7:00pm EST on ESPN 3.