St. John’s Falls to Providence, 1-0, on Senior Night

Wednesday, October 31

Queens, N.Y. (Belson Stadium)

7:00 P.M.

St. John's University

7-7-3, 3-3-3

Providence

9-6-2, 6-2-1

Team	1	2	Final F
Providence	1	0	1
St. John's	0	0	0

The 2018 St. John's Men's Soccer Senior Class.

St. John’s Falls to Providence, 1-0, on Senior Night

10/31/2018 10:24:00 PM | Men's Soccer

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The two teams will meet again on Saturday in the BIG EAST Tournament opener

By: Andrew O'Connell

The St. John's men's soccer team closed out its 2018 regular season on Saturday night, falling to Providence, 1-0, in a hard-fought decision at Belson Stadium.

With the loss and Wednesday wins from Xavier and Marquette, the Red Storm (7-7-3, 3-3-3) will enter this weekend's BIG EAST Quarterfinals as the six seed. The Johnnies will open up postseason play with a rematch against the third-seeded Friars on Saturday at 7 p.m. in Rhode Island.

Lenny Wilson, the reigning United Soccer Coaches National Player of the Week, proved outstanding for the Red Storm despite picking up the loss. The senior from Aberdeen, Scotland, made five saves on the evening, including a diving stop on a penalty kick in the 58th minute. The effort marked his second penalty stop of the year in conference play.

After recording the first two shots of the game in the first and 10th minutes, respectively, the Johnnies saw Providence (9-6-2, 6-2-1) jump out to an early 1-0 lead on its first shot attempt in the 14th minute. From just inside midfield on the left side, Joao Serrano sent a towering pass into the box for Tiago Mendonca, who corralled the ball and finished on the short side past Wilson.

After failing to record a shot over the final 35 minutes of the opening period, the Johnnies registered two scoring chances in the first two and a half minutes of the latter stanza. Both of those opportunities came off the right foot of Skage Simonsen, whose best chance sailed just over the crossbar in the 48th.

Ten minutes later, it looked as if Providence would blow the game open thanks to a foul call in the box against a St. John's player. On the ensuing penalty kick, Klisman Sousa sent a powerful strike to his right side, but Wilson guessed correctly and made an acrobatic stop to keep the Red Storm within one.

Wilson came up big for the Johnnies once again about 12 minutes later when Kevin Vang found himself with another great chance in front for the Friars. Instead of a two-goal cushion, the Friars were rewarded with another diving stop from Wilson, who kept the Johnnies in the game for the second time in the half.

Not long after in the 72nd minute, Matt Forster sent his second shot of the night on goal, a dangerous header that Colin Miller smothered to maintain the Friars' advantage.

The Red Storm would fire off two more chances in the closing 90 seconds of play, the last of which was a Simonsen header with one second on the clock that Miller had to pluck out of the air.

St. John's has earned a spot in the BIG EAST Men's Soccer Championship for the second-straight season and the 27th time overall. The Red Storm is 35-16-4 all-time in the tournament with a league-record nine conference titles.