No. 8 St. John’s Welcomes DePaul for Senior Night

Saturday, November 2

Queens, N.Y. (Belson Stadium)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

DePaul

Matt Forster, took four shots, three on goal, in his first game back from injury since Sept. 6.

No. 8 St. John’s Welcomes DePaul for Senior Night

11/1/2019 12:21:00 PM | Men's Soccer

Watch Live Stats Game Notes (PDF)

Red Storm will look to secure top two seed with victory against the Blue Demons

By: Andrew O'Connell

QUEENS, N.Y. (Nov. 1, 2019) – Looking to shore up its postseason seeding, the No. 8 St. John's men's soccer team will welcome DePaul to Belson Stadium for a 7 p.m. kick-off on Saturday. The contest will be broadcast live on the BIG EAST Digital Network with Ralph Bednarczyk on the call.

All BIG EAST 10 teams enter the weekend with two games remaining and not one of those squads has yet been eliminated from postseason contention. St. John's (12-2-1, 5-1-1 BIG EAST), which can fall no lower than the third spot in the final standings, could lock up a top two seed with a win on Saturday night against the Blue Demons (5-7-3, 1-3-3 BIG EAST). The top two teams in the final BIG EAST regular season standings receive a bye to the semifinals and will host said semifinal matchup on Wednesday, Nov. 13. With six points in BIG EAST play thanks to one win and three draws, including a tie with first-place Georgetown, DePaul will be trying desperately to extend its unbeaten streak at Belson Stadium to four games, as the Blue Demons are 1-0-2 against St. John's in Queens dating back to 2014. The Red Storm could potentially also lock up a first-round bye before stepping on the field Saturday with a little bit of help from Xavier, as a Musketeers' win against Providence in Cincinnati would assure the Johnnies a top-two finish.

The Johnnies are currently riding their first winless streak of the season, suffering their only loss of BIG EAST play against Georgetown on Oct. 23 before drawing with Seton Hall, 1-1, on Saturday evening in South Orange. Despite going more than seven days without a victory for the first time this season, the Red Storm remained at no. 3 in Monday's latest release of the RPI and maintained a place in the top 10 of Tuesday's United Soccer Coaches poll, checking in at no. 8. Through games played on Thursday, the Johnnies place among the top 25 teams in the nation in both offensive and defensive production, ranking 24th in Division I with 2.07 goals per game and placing eighth nationally in both goals against average (0.58) and shutout percentage (.600).

A win on Saturday would give the Red Storm its first six-win effort in BIG EAST play since 2009, when the Johnnies went 6-1-4 before winning their eighth conference tournament title. That year, the Red Storm recorded nine draws, matching an NCAA record for ties in a season.

Sophomore sensation Tani Oluwaseyi scored the lone goal of the evening for St. John's last time out against Seton Hall, raising his league-leading goal total to nine on the season. The forward from Mississauga, Ont., is the first St. John's player to find the back of the net nine times in a single campaign since Ryan Soroka accomplished the feat during the BIG EAST Championship season of 2006. The last member of the Red Storm to reach double-digits was Simone Salinno, who scored 14 times during the College Cup campaign of 2003. On Monday, Oluwaseyi was recognized by the BIG EAST for the third time this season, finding a spot on the conference's weekly honor roll.

DePaul heads to Queens having lost two straight matches by a score of 1-0, falling to Creighton in Omaha on Oct. 23 before dropping a home match to Xavier on Saturday. Prior to those decisions, the Blue Demons defeated third-place Providence, 2-0, on Oct. 19.

The Blue Demons have scored 15 goals in 15 matches, including just seven goals in their last 10 outings. On the year, Jake Fuderer, Max de Bruijne and Youssef Ramadan have tallied three markers apiece. Fuderer, a sophomore from Glenview, Ill., also leads the squad with four assists.

Redshirt junior Drew Nuelle, a 6-foot-5 transfer from Indiana, has started all 15 games in net for the Blue Demons, compiling a goal against average of 1.08 to go along with a .776 save percentage. The St. Louis native has tallied six clean sheets on the season.

St. John's and DePaul will meet for the 16th time since 2005 when the two teams square off on Saturday night. The Red Storm owns an 8-3-4 edge in the series history.

Since the conference realigned prior to the start of the 2013, the two sides have played relatively even, with the Johnnies holding a 2-1-3 advantage over the Blue Demons.

The Red Storm is 3-2-2 all-time against DePaul at Belson Stadium but will be looking for its first home win against the Blue Demons since a 2-0 victory on Sept. 29, 2012.