It took until the 60th minute and a booming strike off the left foot of senior midfielder Shelby Halasz, but the St. John’s offense finally was able to breakthrough for the game’s lone goal in a 1-0 victory over Towson on Sunday night at Belson Stadium in the teams home opener.
“I thought it was a really good team effort,” Halasz said. “It started from the back and went through every position. When you have these games where it’s us grinding it out that’s what you need. You don’t need an individual goal. You need one that involves the whole team and that’s what it was.”
The first half saw the No. 21 St. John’s (2-0) offense come out on their fast-paced attack pushing the ball down the field past the Towson defenders. The Red Storm outshot the Tigers (0-2) 6-2 in the first half and had opportunities to put the ball in the back of the net, but went into the half tied at zero thanks to the Johnnies’ high-powered defensive display. Senior defender and Big East Preseason Defensive Player of the Year Georgia Kearney-Perry highlighted the defensive effort with two outstanding blocks form her back to stop a potential goal-scoring attempt by Towson.
The speed and depth of the St. John’s offense finally got the best of the Towson’s defense in the second half. Head coach Ian Stone pulled the right strings to start the half as he brought in Halasz, who was playing with a bum hip, into the Red Storm eleven as the Johnnies outshot the Tigers 6-0 to start the half leading up to the senior midfielder’s goal.
Senior forward Rachel Daly was the main focus of the St. John’s offense attack on the night and as a result the Towson defenders played the Big East Preseason Co-Offensive Player of the Year really rough, knocking her down five or six times. But that didn’t stop Daly from finding Halasz in traffic in the 60th minute, as she was credited with the assist on the game’s only goal.
“I’m all about a physical game,” Daly said. “I think I can hold myself accountable but I think there comes a time when it becomes a little too much. Their game plan was to stop me and I guess they did for a little bit, but I managed to get an assist and create something for a goal. At the end of the day they can hurt me all they want; I’m good with the three points and that’s all the matters.”
St. John’s also showed off their team’s remarkable depth as sophomore and Big East Preseason Goaltender of the Year Diana Poulin sat out with a sore wrist after undergoing wrist surgery after last season. Graduate student Katie DeVault filled in Poulin as she lived up to her own accolades as a three-time first team All-Mountain West Conference selection as she shut out Towson. Stone was also able to throw many different looks at Towson as nine players saw action at the three forward spots.
“This is definitely the most depth we’ve ever had.” Stone said. “It’s important because, when you’re playing games on a Friday and a Sunday or in the Big East a Thursday and Sunday, you need to be able to rotate players. For me I thought we raised the level when the subs game on tonight. Pretty much at every position, knock on wood; we have players that can step up. That elevates the level of practice and lets everyone know they have to bring it everyday.”
St. John’s will play six straight road games beginning with their next contest against New York foe Syracuse on Aug. 28.
“To me the competition next week steps up a level and it will be interesting to see how we cope with that,” Stone said. “I think we have the players to do it. But obviously we have the old St. John’s-Syracuse rivalry; it’s never an easy game up there. We have to be prepared to fight. I m really excited about what this team can do, bit now we will find out how good we are when we go play good ACC teams like Syracuse and Boston College.”
