St. John's University Athletics
Wingert, Joseph Lead SJU Past West Virginia, 2-1
11/3/2001 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
After West Virginia tied the game at 1-all, it appeared that it was headed to overtime. A West Virginia foul late in the game gave St. Johns an indirect kick. Senior Jeff Matteo (Stormville, N.Y.) sent it from the far side of the field and hooked it toward the box, where classmate Shalrie Joseph (Brooklyn, N.Y.) flicked it off his head and past Mountainers goalkeeper Chris McKinney, giving the Red Storm a 2-1 lead with 1:21 left to play.
St. Johns held on to win 2-1, improving the Red Storms record to 11-1-3 overall and 7-0-3 in the conference. Seventh-ranked St. Johns closes its regular season out on Tuesday at Connecticut. Kickoff is slated for 4 p.m. in a match that will determine the No. 1 seed in the BIG EAST Conference Tournament, which begins next weekend at campus sites.
Any time you get a conference win, its big, St. Johns Head Coach Dave Masur said. This conference has been a battle all season and weve got our work cut out for us on Tuesday, but were looking forward to the challenge.
St. Johns dominated the first half, outshooting West Virginia 11-1 in that period alone. Just two minutes into the game, McKinney saved a shot from sophomore Angel Rodriguez (Toms River, N.J.) and then a shot from junior Patrick Lonergan (Millington, N.J.) went wide. The Red Storm then had a pair of corner kicks in the third minute of the game, with a header from freshman Chris Corcoran (Marshfield, Mass.) going wide as well.
In the eighth minute, Matteo took a cross from junior Alberto Duenas (Hawthorne, Calif.) and blasted a shot from the near side that McKinney saved.
Finally, in the 41st minute, Matteo controlled the ball in the corner on the near side and sent a pass to freshman Alessandro Acquista (Whitestone, N.Y). Acquista dished it off quickly toward the box to Joseph who sent a pass through the box to sophomore Chris Wingert (Babylon, N.Y.). Wingerts shot from about 12 yards out easily beat McKinney to the lower far post.
The Red Storm continued to dominate on the offensive end in the first half, taking six corner kicks and holding the Mountaineers to just one shot and zero corners, and took a 1-0 lead to the break.
Midway through the second half, the Mountaineers were able to break free and tie the game. Chin Orih took a pass from Corey Densk in the box and used a bicycle kick to deflect the ball past St. Johns goalkeeper Guy Hertz (Ramut-Musharon, Israel), tying the game at 69:35.
St. Johns began to move the ball toward the West Virginia zone through the remainder of the second half, despite the Mountaineers leaving five to seven back on defense, and had a pair of shots late in the game with corner kicks in the 80th and 82nd minute.
St. Johns outshot West Virginia, 15-3, overall and had 10 corner kicks, while the Mountaineers had none.