St. John’s soccer narrowly falls to Indiana in Bloomington

St. John’s soccer lost a tight contest to Indiana on the road. 

Tuesday night’s contest in Bloomington was a tale of two halves, but it was the home team that had just the one moment of brilliance they needed to get the win over the St. John’s soccer program.

No. 11 Indiana was still seeking its first win of the season coming into the game after losing the first game of the season to the defending National Champion Clemson Tigers, 3-2.

The Hoosier drew 3-3 with Portland on August 30, and had last weekend’s contest against No. 8 Notre Dame postponed due to inclement weather.

Indiana controlled most of the first half proceedings, going into the halftime break with a 5-2 lead in the shot category although St. John’s rookie goalkeeper Zenden Hart had to make just one save in the first 45 minutes.

It did not take Indiana long to jump ahead in the second half as sophomore forward Tommy Milhalic scored on a beautiful acrobatic strike to beat Hart and put the Hoosiers in front in the 49th minute.

St. John’s responded well, dominating the second half play, totaling nine shots in the frame to three for Indiana.

The Red Storm were not able to get one through to the Hoosier net as junior goalkeeper JT Harms came off the bench and made three important saves in the latter stages of the game to seal the win for the home side.

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The problem for St. John’s and head coach Dr. Dave Masur is his program has shown the ability to go toe-to-toe with these powerhouse programs around the country, but they have lacked a cutting edge.

The moment of perfect execution to put them over the top against these top-level opponents.

It is also the third game this season where the Red Storm has been shut out.

Other than the offensive explosion against Lehigh on Friday, the consistent scoring has yet to be found which is a major concern for this team going forward.

St. John’s soccer set more NCAA Tournament caliber competition

The narrow loss to Indiana puts St. John’s at a 1-3 record on the season and will return home later this week to face another program that reached the NCAA Tournament field in 2021.

The Greyhounds of Loyola Maryland will come into Belson Stadium on Friday at 7:00pm with a 2-1 record and having a week off after taking down Old Dominion last Friday, 1-0.

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Loyola Maryland enters as the defending Patriot League Champions after finishing as the No.1 seed in the regular season (10-6-4, 7-2 Patriot) and en route to clinching the program’s first Patriot League title.

The Greyhounds would fall in penalty shootouts to North Carolina in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.

St. John’s has faced the Greyhounds five times in program history and do not have a win against them with three losses and two ties all-time.

The last meeting between the two sides was a 1-0 loss for the Red Storm in 2018.