St. John's University Athletics
St. John's University
Syracuse
Alfonso Leads Red Storm Past Syracuse, 3-1
10/31/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Soccer
Oct. 31, 2007
SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Omar Alfonso scored two goals in the second half of play to lead the Red Storm past Syracuse 3-1 in BIG EAST play. The Red Storm improves to 9-5-4 (6-2-2 BIG EAST), while Syracuse falls to 6-7-4 (3-7-0 BIG EAST).
"This was a great road win against a big, physical team," said head coach Dr. Dave Masur. "It was nice to get the win after being down 1-0 and I was happy with the offensive output."
St. John's got off to a quick start as Rory Quinn had an early chance in the 3rd minute, but fired a shot high. Adam Himeno also had a shot go high before Ben Clack forced Syracuse keeper Robert Cavicchia to pick up his first save in the 20th minute. The Red Storm had a great scoring chance in the 23rd minute, but could not convert. After a Michael Luk corner kick, Himeno had a shot blocked and a Joel Gustafsson header went wide of net.
Barely into the 24th minute Red Storm keeper Neal Kitson made his first save of the game, but then surrendered a goal to Kyle Hall three minutes later. After a St. John's foul, Hall was able to beat Kitson on the ensuing free kick to give the Orange a 1-0 lead. In the 38th minute, the Red Storm got the equalizer on a strange play. After a free kick into the box, Gustafsson played a good ball towards the net. Two Syracuse players went up for a header and the ball deflected past Cavicchia. In the closing minutes of the first half Himeno had a good shot on goal, but Cavicchia made the save. Jeff Stepan also had a shot go off of the crossbar just before the final whistle and the game was tied 1-1 at halftime.
Barely into the second half, Cavicchia made a good save on a Nelson Becerra shot to keep the game tied. Kitson then made his second stop of the game just over a minute later. In the 50th minute, however, Alfonso gave the Red Storm a 2-1 lead as he fired a shot to the left of the keeper and into the net. Becerra had another good shot saved in the 53rd minute, but Alfonso then extended the Red Storm's lead in the 67th minute. After gathering a deflection in front of the net, Alfonso was able to beat the keeper for his second goal of the game. In an attempt to give the Red Storm its second four-goal game of the season, Becerra was again stopped by Cavicchia in the 80th minute.
The Red Storm had a season high 17 shots and also outshot the Orange 17-6. The three-goal output was the second highest of the season and the most since a 4-1 win over Pittsburgh on September 23. Kitson made his first start since September 16 at Virginia and improved to 4-3-1 on the season.
The Red Storm returns to action on Saturday, November 3 against South Florida in the regular season finale.
