The St. John’s men’s soccer team looked for its first conference win of the season on a rainy Saturday night against Xavier, but an overtime goal from Xavier’s John McDermott sent the Red Storm to 0-4-1 in Big East play. The goal gave Xavier a 2-1 victory.
Despite the loss, head coach Dr. Dave Masur was high on his team’s performance and what they were able to accomplish in the game.
“We played well tonight,” Masur said. “We out shot them, 12-8 [in regulation]. We had them beat in corner kicks, 8-1. We fought until the very end but it was just disappointing to lose this game.”
A minute and 51 seconds into the game, the brother duo for Xavier (7-5-2, 3-2-0) delivered a quick start for the Musketeers. Will Walker scored his fifth goal of the season on an assist by Matt Walker. The Red Storm (7-6-1, 0-4-1) answered back in the 53rd minute with a blast off the foot of senior midfielder/forward Jimmy Mulligan. The goal by Jimmy was his forth of the season as St. John’s was able to tie the game.
The Red Storm had multiple opportunities to get themselves a victory but they failed to finish around the net.
“We’ve made plays throughout the year but we weren’t able to put enough of those together tonight,” Masur said. “We’ve got to make those key plays.”
The Red Storm recently had a 2-0 win vs Princeton and Coach Masur also had strong feelings about that battle and how it affected his squad.
“We had a difficult game recently against Princeton,” Masur said. “I think we were a little fatigued coming into this game.”
A scary moment happened late in the match when senior midfielder Jamie Thomas went up for a header. The trainers came out to help him up and he walked off under his own power with a towel around his head. Jamie later returned to help his team try to finish off Xavier.
St. John’s will host Marquette Tuesday at 7 pm at Belson Stadium.
