It wasn’t exactly the kind of home opener you would expect out of a team that hung tough with No. 10 Georgetown just a week ago.
“We stunk,” coach Rick Sowell said. “They outplayed us, out-coached us, they just did about everything better than we did.”
The Red Storm’s 12-6 loss to Drexel (3-1) at DaSilva Field this last Saturday marked the team’s second loss in a row.
“This was a major setback,” Sowell said. “It’s disappointing especially after last week and having all week to prepare. We have to look back at what went wrong in our preparation, on what we did wrong, on what I did wrong.”
St. John’s (1-2) looked unprepared out of the gate, allowing a 3-0 Drexel run to dominate most of the first quarter.
The Johnnies responded with just 15 seconds left in the first quarter, as freshman midfielder Thomas Manes found the back of the net.
He would open the second quarter with another goal, and the Johnnies seemed to gain new life after sophomore midfielder Justin O’Donnell tied the contest at three with 5:39 left in the first half.
The Dragons would respond with a fury, though.
Three goals in a row, separated by just about a minute a piece, left Sowell and the Red Storm in disarray going into halftime.
“We struggled in the first half,” Sowell said. “We got down and crawled back in it and that set off another series of bad plays.”
Sowell demonstrated obvious frustration during his halftime talk with his team.
“I basically told the guys that we needed to wake up,” Sowell said.
The Johnnies responded with intensity entering the second half, as sophomore midfielder Jack Rosson fell while ripping a shot past Dragons goalie Bruce Bickford, his first of two goals on the game.
Sophomore Tom Michaelsen would score just over three minutes later with a push through the defense for a goal.
But again, the Red Storm would let its momentum slip away just 20 seconds after Michaelsen’s goal, as sophomore goalie Dave Saccente was caught out of the cage after a turnover.
“We’ll be coming off a disappointing loss against a team we thought we had a chance to beat,” Sowell said, “but we’ll have to respond better.”
