St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
NC State
St. John's Falls to North Carolina State on Late Goal, 2-1
9/9/2005 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Sept. 9, 2005
Queens, NY - North Carolina State's Matthew Lytle scored with five seconds left in regulation, giving the Wolfpack a come-from-behind 2-1 win over No. 7 St. John's in first round play at the Duke Classic Friday night at Koskinen Field in Durham, NC.
The Wolfpack (2-2) scored two goals in the final 10 minutes of the game, erasing a 1-0 lead St. John's had taken in the first half. The Red Storm, ranked N.7 by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America and among the top 10 three other national polls, fall to 1-1-1 with the loss.
The Red Storm jumped out to a 1-0 lead when sophomore Ben Shuleva (Dublin, OH/Dublin Coffman) scored unassisted at 19:19 of the first half. Shuleva stole the ball at midfield, dribbled down the right sideline and into the box, where he launched a shot that beat Wolfkpack keeper Aaron Sanders to the upper left.
St. John's controlled the flow through much of the first half, taking six shots. Graduate student Matt Groenwald (Mt. Prospect, IL/Prospect) and senior Andre Schmid (Sacramento, CA/Christian Brothers) each took two, while Shuleva and junior Georgios Spanos (West Islip, NY/St. John the Baptist) had the other attempts.
NC State tied the game late in the second half, with Aaron King taking a pass from Bryant Salter to beat sophomore goalkeeper Jason Landers (Lower Gwynedd, PA/Wissahickon) at 83:54.
The go-ahead goal came when NC State defender Hugh Cronin took a free kick from the 50 and send the ball to the top of the 18. Handon Kirk managed to direct the ball to Lytle, who struck a hard shot into the upper corner for the game-winner with five , who scored with five seconds left to give the Wolfpack the win.
NC State out-shot St. John's, 19-13, while the Red Storm had three shots on goal to the Wolfpack's 10.
St. John's concludes its weekend visit with a game against sixth-ranked Duke on Sunday. Kickoff is slated for 2:30 p.m.
