St. John’s Welcomes No. 8 Creighton to Belson Stadium on Saturday

Saturday, October 6

Queens, N.Y. (Belson Stadium)

7:00 P.M.

St. John's University

No. 8 Creighton

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St. John’s Welcomes No. 8 Creighton to Belson Stadium on Saturday

10/4/2018 11:16:00 AM | Men's Soccer

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The top two teams in the BIG EAST standing will square off on BEDN

Off to its best BIG EAST start in a decade an unbeaten in its last four outings, the St. John's men's soccer team will face its toughest test of the year so far on Saturday, welcoming No. 8 Creighton to Belson Stadium for a 7 p.m. tilt.

The game will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network with Mike Watts and Meghan Caffrey on the call from Queens.

A third of the way through the conference season, the Bluejays (7-2-1, 3-0-0) and the Red Storm (6-3-1, 2-0-1) enter the weekend ranked first and second, respectively in the BIG EAST men's soccer standings. The Johnnies are off to a 2-0-1 start in league action for the first time since 2008, when the Red Storm played No.3 Notre Dame to a scoreless draw before topping Marquette and No. 5 Connecticut in back-to-back contests. That year, the Johnnies would conclude BIG EAST play with a record of 8-1-2, claiming the conference's regular season crown en route to a 19-3-3 finish and the program's fourth appearance in the College Cup.

Since allowing a pair of goals in the team's season opener at UC Santa Barbara, the Red Storm has yet to concede more than one tally in a game this season. The Johnnies currently sit second in the BIG EAST and 29th nationally in goals against average (0.77), trailing only Creighton (0.39) in the conference rankings. The Red Storm's success in that category can be attributed in part to the play of Lenny Wilson, who was named BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week for the first time on Monday. Since picking up the loss at UCSB to open the campaign, Wilson is 4-0-1 in his last five appearances with three shutouts, a 0.37 goals against average and a .895 save percentage. On the season, Wilson ranks second in the BIG EAST in goals against average (0.63) and save percentage (.826). He also checks in at 17th and 21st nationally in each of those metrics, respectively.

Matt Forster also garnered recognition from the BIG EAST on Monday, earning a spot on the conference's weekly honor roll for the second time this season. The junior midfielder tallied a goal and an assist in the Red Storm's 2-1 win over Mount St. Mary's on Tuesday before adding another helper in the team's victory over Butler on Saturday. Forster has now regitered at least one point in four-straight, five of the last six, and seven of the team's past nine outings overall. Entering the weekend, Forster ranks second in the conference in goals (5), assists (4) and points (14).

St. John's will look to defeat a ranked opponent for the third-straight season, having topped No. 11 Butler in 2016 and No. 10 Georgetown in 2017. Both of those wins came in the friendly confines of Belson Stadium. A win over the eighth-ranked Bluejays would give the Johnnies their highest ranked win since downing No. 5 Georgetown on Nov. 2, 2013.

In addition to pitting the top two teams in the conference standings against one another, Saturday's tilt will also match the top two coaches in the BIG EAST in terms of career wins. Dr. Dave Masur currently ranks first among BIG EAST coaches and sixth nationally with 407 career wins while his Creighton counterpart, Elmar Bolowich, ranks eighth nationally with 391 career victories.

The Bluejays come to Queens following a double overtime loss to a fellow top 10 team, No. 5 Denver, at Morrison Stadium on Tuesday night. The loss snapped a six-game winning streak for Creighton, who has been ranked inside the top 10 of the coaches' poll on at least two separate occasions in 16 of the past 17 seasons.

The Bluejays can attribute a lion's share of their success to a lock-down defensive unit that paces the BIG EAST and ranks sixth nationally in goals against average at 0.39. Freshman goalkeeper Paul Kruse has tallied six shutouts in the team's first 10 games and is one of just nine netminders nationwide to record that many clean sheets so far on the season. Creighton's opponents have mustered an average of just 7.7 shots per game with only 28.6 percent of those tries finding their target. Offensively, the Bluejays are led by Sven Koening, who paces the BIG EAST with six goals in 10 appearances.

St. John's and Creighton share a vibrant series history that existed well before Creighton joined the BIG EAST in 2013. Before becoming conference foes, St. John's and Creighton met three times in the NCAA Tournament between 1996 and 2003 with all three of those coming on the grandest of stages. The Red Storm's first win over Creighton came in the 1996 national semifinal, two days before the Johnnies topped FIU to win the school's first-ever NCAA title. After defeating the Red Storm in the 2002 Round of 16 en route to an appearance in the College Cup, the Bluejays once again fell victim to the Johnnies in 2003, as St. John's defeated Creighton, 3-2, in the national quarterfinal to earn its second College Cup berth in the span of three seasons.

Since Creighton joined the BIG EAST in 2013, the Johnnies are 1-3-2 against the Bluejays. Following three-consecutive losses from 2013-2015, the Red Storm is unbeaten in its last three against Creighton, including a convincing 3-1 victory in the opening round of last year's BIG EAST Tournament at Belson Stadium. Forster scored a goal and added an assist for the Red Storm in that postseason triumph.