Senior Day at Belson Stadium ended fittingly on Sunday, with a pair of goals from seniors Runa Stefansdottir and Megan Klement helping the St. John’s women’s soccer team cruise to a 4-0 victory over Seton Hall.
“Senior Day to me is a little bit of a token to add to how much we appreciate the seniors,” said St. John’s head coach Ian Stone. “For them to get two of goals I thought was very fitting.”
Klement’s goal came in the 79th minute and was the first of her career.
“Honestly, for me, it was a big thing because I had never scored before,” said Klement. “And I really just wanted to make an impact for our team, and I think today we played amazing and everybody on the field worked for each other.”
The Red Storm (6-7-0, 2-4-0) got off to a quick start, with Stefansdottir’s goal coming in the 11th minute, burying it
in right side of the net from the left side of the box.
Although there were no cards given, a total of 17 fouls were called in a scrappy match between rivals.
“I though they kept their composure really well,” said Stone. “It was a very physical game, but we’re used to that in the Big East.”
The Johnnies went up 2-0 before halftime with an unexpected goal coming on a free kick from junior defender Sandra Osborn 45 yards out, with a booming boot that bounced off the keeper’s hands and into the net.
Junior midfielder Jen Gibbons added a third in the 68th minute before Klement belatedly opened her St. John’s account.
“What we had to do was settle down and keep possession of the ball,” said Stone. “Because we knew that we would be able to
capitalize on a few of their defensive mistakes, and that proved to be the case as the game went on.”
Seton Hall (6-8-0, 1-5-0) gave the Red Storm their final loss last season, so the team was proud to exact revenge.
“It feels great,” said Klement. “And to go out there and win 4-0? That’s even better.”
The Red Storm collected two wins this weekend to end a four game losing streak where the women were outscored a total of 14-1.
“This entire season we’ve been so close and we had so many heartbreaks where it wasn’t going our way,” said Stefansdottir.” “And then today it finally went our way.”
