St. John’s soccer falls to Columbia, awaits Big East play

St. John’s soccer has another winless week as Big East play looms large

Earlier this week, the St. John’s soccer team lost its fourth game of the season as Columbia defeated the Red Storm 1-0 at home on a 26th-minute header by Jao Lima.

The match was evenly contested as both teams combined for 10 shots with the Lions leading with four shots on goal to the Red Storm’s three.

St. John’s had a few key opportunities to get back in the game but just could not get past goalkeeper Michael Collodi.

The closest St. John’s came was on this 67th-minute opportunity from Aidan Borra:

The loss followed a 1-1 tie at Belson Stadium against Loyola Maryland where St. John’s coughed up the lead late after Antek Sienkiel’s fourth tally of the season in the 61st minute.

The Marist transfer has been fantastic since coming over, scoring four goals in just six games so far this season.

St. John’s is now 1-4-1 in 2022 as the Red Storm are limping into Big East play.

The Johnnies have just one win on the season, a 5-0 drubbing of the aforementioned Mountain Hawks back on September 2, and have been shut out in four of its six games to start off campaign.

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The major concern for this Johnnies squad was the scoring with the departure of star striker Tani Oluwaseyi.

Despite making the NCAA Tournament, his presence was missed even last year through injury as he did not appear until the final few games of the season as St. John’s scored just 23 goals in 20 games.

The injury to former two-time All-Big East Third Team midfielder Einar Lye has not helped the scoring issues as well. The graduate student has not made an appearance yet this season and he has shown the capability to score a few tallies from midfield.

Those trends have carried over to this season as St. John’s continues to display a good collection of midfielders and wingers that can create plenty of opportunities and hang around with some of the better programs in the country, but struggle with finishing off those opportunities.

St. John’s soccer looks to start winning as Big East play kicks off

The Red Storm will need to sort out those concerns quickly as Big East play will kick off on Friday evening in Queens against powerhouse Georgetown at 8:30pm on FoxSports1.

Georgetown comes into the match in a similar predicament as the Hoyas are off to a 1-2-2 start to the season with losses to nationally-ranked Pittsburgh and Maryland, along with draws against High Point and No. 20 Denver.

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The Hoyas took down Temple, 5-2, for its  only win of the year.

St. John’s and Georgetown will meet for the 40th time overall as St. John’s looks for its first win in the last four meetings, dating back to 2018.