St. John’s soccer announces 2022 season schedule

St. John’s soccer announces schedule for upcoming 2022 season. 

Earlier this week, the St. John’s soccer program unveiled its full slate for the upcoming 2022 schedule.

The schedule provides plenty of intriguing non-conference matchups with NCAA Tournament programs from last season and some matchups that have not taken place in quite a while.

St. John’s will open up the 2022 regular season on the road against Monmouth on August 25 for their first meeting since 2006.

The home opener on August 29 at Belson Stadium will feature St. John’s taking on Florida International, which was the No.13 seed in the NCAA Tournament last fall, in a matchup that has not taken place since 2004.

This is a rematch of the 1996 National Championship captured by the Johnnies by a 4-1 scoreline and St. John’s has won three of the five matchups since that triumph.

Another massive game on the non-conference slate is a road trip to Indiana on September 6.

The Hoosiers finished as the runner-up in the 2020 title game to Marshall in overtime and were the No. 15 seed in last year’s edition of the NCAA’s.

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It will be the first time the programs collide since 2015.

Other opponents include Princeton (Sept. 27), which the Red Storm had a pair of 1-0 victories against with the latter one coming in the first round of the national tournament, as well as Loyola Marymount (Sept. 9), Lehigh (Sept. 2), and Columbia (Sept. 12).

St. John’s will open up its Big East slate with two games at home starting against Georgetown on September 16 and Villanova on the September 23.

The regular season will wrap up on the road on November 2 against Marquette.

St. John’s soccer still has questions about roster

St. John’s has another strong schedule looking to make a run to the NCAA Tournament, but there are plenty of questions surrounding the roster that will have to be answered.

The departures of defender Lucas Bartlett, forward star Tani Oluwaseyi, and All-American goalkeeper Luka Gavran all of whom were in their final years of eligibility and were selected in the MLS Superdraft No. 7, No. 17, and No. 31 overall, respectively, create questions in several areas.

While the full roster is still taking shape, St. John’s returns graduate students Brandon Knapp, Einar Lye, and senior Wesley Leggett three of their top four goalscorers in 2021.

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Generating more offense in 2022 will be critical for the Red Storm who managed just 23 goals in 20 games and who will succeed Oluwaseyi in the No. 9 spot will be a major factor in that.

Knapp had plenty of success there in 2021 while Leggett has shown promise and maybe be more of a natural fit there, or seen as a great spark of the bench, continuing much of the role he has had for the last year and a half.

Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau may get a look as he seeks to break out in his junior campaign.

Defensively, center-back stalwart Matthew Chandler departs due to graduation as well as several others as the defense will see some new faces in addition to a few returners having more playing time.

St. John’s will look to head back to the NCAA Tournament for the 23rd time in the last 31 seasons after 11-6-3 (5-3-2, Big East) in 2021. The Red Storm fell to Butler in the First Round of the Big East Tournament and Oregon State in the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament.