No. 10 St. John’s Blanks Temple, 1-0, for 10th Win of the Season

Tuesday, October 8

Queens, N.Y. (Belson Stadium)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

10-1-0, 3-0-0

Temple

3-6-1, 0-1-1

Temple

St. John's

No. 10 St. John’s Blanks Temple, 1-0, for 10th Win of the Season

10/8/2019 10:28:00 PM | Men's Soccer

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Red Storm uses 66th minute goal from Tani Oluwaseyi to remain perfect at home on the year

By: Andrew O'Connell

QUEENS, N.Y. (Oct. 8, 2019) – Rafael Bustamante found Tani Oluwaseyi for a goal in the 66^th minute, providing all the offense the No. 10 St. John's men's soccer team would need for its 10^th win of the season on Tuesday night, as the Johnnies downed Temple, 1-0, at Belson Stadium.

Oluwaseyi, the reigning BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Week, found the back of the net for the fourth time in his last three outings and registered his fourth game-winning goal of the season. Bustamante, who was named to Monday's BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll, extended his point streak to two games after tallying the decisive marker on Friday night against Marquette.

Oluwaseyi bumped his league-leading goal total to seven on the year, the highest by a St. John's player since the College Cup campaign of 2008 when Tafadzwa Chiduku scored seven times and Nelson Becerra led the national semifinalists with eight goals in 24 games.

Jan Hoffelner and Luka Gavran combined to record the Red Storm's third straight shutout and its seventh overall of the season. The goalkeeping tandem stopped all seven Temple tries on target, setting a season-high for saves in a single game.

"I knew Temple was going to be a really tough team," said Dr. Dave Masur following the win. "I thought we started out really well for the first 15-20 minutes and then Temple kind of lifted their intensity, made a lot of subs and made the game a bit physical and chaotic for us. We didn't always respond well. We need to be able to play with more efficiency and more positional savvy to be able overcome that, but we worked really hard and we're excited to get a win against a really tough team."

The Johnnies (10-1-0, 3-0-0 BIG EAST) have recorded 10 wins in their opening 11 games for the first time since the national championship season of 1996.

The Red Storm appeared to grab the lead in the 16^th minute of action, as Einar Lye buried a rebound off a close-quarters shot from Brandon Duarte. An offside flag negated the goal; however, and the two teams remained scoreless in the early going.

Ten minutes later, Temple (3-6-1, 0-1-1 American) registered its best chances of the opening half in quick succession. Hoffelner stopped two shots in the span of two minutes, the latter of which required a highlight-reel save on a header in the box. Near the top-right corner of the six-yard box, Leandros Lillis headed a cross down to the bottom-left corner of the cage. Hoffelner extended to his right, getting a hand on the ball and forcing it wide to preserve the 0-0 tie.

In total, Hoffelner made three saves in the opening half, tying a season-high.

St. John's regrouped in the locker room and was quickly rewarded with two dangerous free kick opportunities, but Temple managed to thwart both tries.

After a stretch of back-and-forth play that featured a pair of saves from Gavran, the Red Storm climbed ahead in the 66^th minute. Bustamante, who took home BIG EAST Defensive Player of the Week honors on Sept. 30, began the series with a tremendous tackle to take the ball away from a Temple outside back in the Owls' zone. The junior from Corona, Queens, then charged up the left flank before finding Oluwaseyi in center of the box. The sophomore scoring phenom quickly tapped it through the legs of a Temple center back and into the bottom right corner of the cage, giving the Red Storm the 1-0 lead with which it would end the game.

"Rafa's got good agility, good passion for the game, good instinct in winning challenges and winning headers, said Masur. "He stepped into the play and made a big-time winning tackle. He made a good play to Tani and Tani had a gorgeous finish."

Temple continued to fight over the final 25 minutes of game action, but the Red Storm managed to hold the Owls at bay, securing the team's seventh clean sheet victory of the campaign. Gavran, who improved to 6-1-0 on the season, tallied four saves in the second half, tying a season-high.

The Red Storm will return to action at Belson Stadium on Saturday night, welcoming BIG EAST foe Villanova to Queens for a game between two of the nation's best defenses. Following a 1-0 win over No. 17 James Madison on Tuesday afternoon, the Wildcats rank third nationally with a 0.26 goals against average. The Red Storm lowered its goals against average to 0.44 on Tuesday evening, good enough for seventh in Division I. Kick-off is set for 7 p.m.