St. John’s Men’s Soccer defeated Sacred Heart 2-1 on Sept. 14 at Belson Stadium. Goals from junior forward Gabin Thomelier and senior defender Antonio Biggs lifted the Johnnies, who improved to 4-2-2 ahead of Sept. 19 Big East opener against Xavier.
The Red Storm were coming off a hard-earned winon Sept. 11, breaking Fairleigh Dickinson University’s undefeated streak. A second-half curler from senior center-back Bjorn Nikolajewski was enough to secure the win. With a positive record of 3-2-2, they looked to climb to second place in the Big East Conference.
In the opposing half of the pitch, the Sacred Heart Pioneers. They arrived in Queens with a losing record and two straight ties, so it was safe to say spirits were not high for the Pioneers.
The pattering of high-fives and the lowering of pre-game music signaled the game was about to be underway. As lineups were announced, the crowd was delighted to hear team captain and militant center-back Antonio Biggs was back in the lineup.
After the whistle blew and the ball kicked off, the game was underway. Long-time head coach David Masur switched his usual tactics, opting for a traditional 4-4-2 with experienced attacker Gabin Thomelier alongside Biggs—an unusual choice for the attacking role. This was Biggs’ first career start at forward.
Biggs proved to be a presence early, as 10 minutes in he made a clever run in behind to get at the end of a cross. Biggs put a little too much power behind it, sending the first shot of the game over the bar.
The first quarter-hour of the match was divided, with both teams equally creating close to nothing. Both teams were ping-ponging the ball in the midfield.
In the midst of a constant back-and-forth, senior midfielder Julian Jakopovic got the ball in the Pioneer’s half. Rolling a saucy through ball in between the Pioneers’ backline. The French Thomelier continued the European connection and took a deadly touch past Sacred Heart’s senior goalkeeper Nate DiLoreto. He whispered the ball into an open goal and wheeled away in celebration, making it 1-0 for St. John’s.
The elated screaming was quickly followed by disappointed murmuring, as junior defender Igor Goncalves miscalculated a tackle and collided with SHU’s Sam McCann. The crash was met with a yellow card from the referee, who then quickly went to the replay box to make sure of his decision. On his way back he preemptively reached for his back pocket, which meant Goncalves was shown a red card.
The Red Storm were now playing with 10 men, which meant the Pioneers would attempt to capitalize.However, it was the Johnnies who had nothing to worry about, as any promising balls were calmly collected by freshman goalkeeper Nicholas Bezama, who was chasing his second-straight shutout after replacing star goalkeeper Alec McLachlan.
To start the second half, Masur opted for a rather conservative lineup. It proved effective, as the Pioneers held onto the ball but failed to create any threatening chances.
After laying back for a while, the Johnnies flew forward with a powerful clearance from graduate student Godwin Partey. Sacred Heart’s Di Loreto was caught off his line and was forced to control the ball outside of the box.
He took a bad touch under pressure from Biggs and the Kingston native took the ball off the goalkeeper with nobody in the net. Biggs took a touch and calmly volleyed it into the back of the net to make it 2-0.
The Johnnies had miraculously extended their lead while being a man down and Sacred Heart soon made another costly mistake.
Senior forward Ank Nibogora received the ball deep in his own half and attempted to run down the wing. He was then leveled by midfielder Ivan Marques. Nibogora rolled on the ground, holding his recently pummeled ankle. Marques was quickly shown a yellow and after a discussion among the referees, they reached a verdict. Marques was shown a red and sent out of the game. The game was now a peculiar ten-on-ten.
The Johnnies were now very ambitious, attempting to capitalize on the Pioneers’ momentum. But their quest to put the game to bed came back to bite them when Sacred Heart’s Ivan Morcillo received a delicious ball through on goal. Attempting to close down on him, Bezama came too far off his line and was beaten by a simple touch from Morcillo. Spotting sophomore forward Brady Poor, Morcillo zings a pass across the box allowing Poor to tap it in to pull Sacred Heart back into the game.The two sides were engaging in back-and-forth counterattacks.
But with five minutes left, the Johnnies did what any sane team would do: sit back and defend.
With every St. John’s clearance time continued to leak off the scoreboard. With a minute left, Sacred Heart tried to make a last stand and threw a hail mary at the Red Storm defense. Unlucky for them, the German Giant safely cleared it out, and the final whistle was blown in Queens.
Now 4-2-2, the Red Storm have strung together back-to-back wins and march into their first Big East conference game against Xavier on Sept. 19 at home in Belson Stadium with confidence and the chance to prove this September surge is no fluke.