St. John's University Athletics
Friday, August 30
Boone, NC (Appalachian Soccer Stadium)
7 p.m.
St. John's University
at
Appalachian State
St. John’s to Kick Off Season at Appalachian State, NC State
8/29/2019 1:35:00 PM | Men's Soccer
Red Storm to start the quest for its 10th BIG EAST title on Friday night
QUEENS, N.Y. (Aug. 30, 2019) – The St. John's men's soccer team will kick off its 2019 campaign this weekend with a pair of games in the Tar Heel State, taking on Appalachian State on Friday before traveling to Raleigh for a showdown with NC State on Sunday. Both games are slated to start at 7 p.m.
Friday's contest with the Mountaineers will be streamed live on AppStateSports.com while Sunday's tilt with the Wolfpack will be carried on ACC Network Extra, available on the ESPN app and WatchESPN.com.
This weekend will mark the third straight season that St. John's has opened with a pair of road matchups. In 2017, a year that saw St. John's finish third in the BIG EAST, the Johnnies split a pair of contests at Drexel and Loyola Maryland to kick off the campaign. Last season, the Red Storm fell at UC Santa Barbara before dominating Loyola Marymount, 4-1, two days later. Since the first year of the program's existence in 1979, the Johnnies are 21-11-8 in season openers, including a 15-7-6 record under Dr. Dave Masur, who enters 2019 ranked seventh among active Division I head coaches in total victories (408) and 12th in winning percentage (.674).
The Red Storm last began a season in North Carolina in 2003, dropping a pair of decisions to Wake Forest and UNC at the Wake Forest Classic in Winston-Salem. That year, however, St. John's would go 17-4-3 the rest of the way and finish as the national runners up. 2003 also produced the program's first MAC Hermann Trophy winner in Chris Wingert, who went on to enjoy a 14-year career in Major League Soccer.
The Johnnies enter 2019 coming off back-to-back appearances in the BIG EAST Tournament, finishing sixth in the league last season despite sporting the nation's second youngest roster. The Red Storm returns plenty of talent from that 2018 squad, including reigning BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-BIG EAST selection Skage Simonsen. Simonsen became the first St. John's player to win the conference's top rookie award since the national championship season of 1996 and the only freshman in program history to be named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team. In addition, Tani Oluwaseyi also earned selection to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team a year ago.
St. John's is the only team in the BIG EAST that welcomes back 100 percent of its scoring from 2018. Simonsen and Matt Forster each contributed six goals and four assists last fall, accounting for two-thirds of the team's total offensive production. Forster, a two-year team captain and the only member of the Red Storm roster to have seen action in each of the last three seasons, is the team's active career leader in games played, goals and assists. Oluwaseyi found the back of the net four times in 2018 while Johan Aquilon and Brandon Duarte each etched their name of the score sheet once.
Appalachian State returns plenty of talent from a squad that went 8-6-3 in 2018, welcoming back 18 letterwinners and eight of the team's 11 starters.
The Mountaineers return two of their three top goals scorers from a year ago, led sophomore forward Camden Holbrook, who registered six goals on just 22 shots during his freshman campaign. Sophomore midfielder Alex Hernandez tied for second on the team with three goals and needed only 12 shots to do so.
In goal, the Mountaineers will look to replace the efforts of last year's starter, Jake Chasteen, who logged seven shutouts in 17 appearances with a 0.84 goals against average. Anchored by Chasteen, App State ranked 29th nationally in team goals against average last season.
Friday night will mark the first ever meeting between St. John's and the Mountaineers.
NC State finished one spot out of the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Top 25 Poll, missing the 25th spot by just eight points. After that poll was released on Aug. 6, the Wolfpack picked up a pair of impressive exhibition wins, downing No. 6 North Carolina in Chapel Hill before topping VCU in Raleigh, a place where NC State went undefeated (8-0-3) a season ago.
The Wolfpack won its first NCAA Tournament contest since 1994 last fall, defeating Campbell by a convincing 4-1 margin in the first round before falling to eventual national champion Maryland, 2-0.
NC State returns its top three goal scorers from that NCAA Tournament team, led by senior midfielder Gabriel Machado. Machado tallied six goals, three of which were game winners, and three assists in 2018.
Junior midfielder David Loera led the team and finished fourth in the ACC last season with seven assists.
NC State also returns a stalwart between the pipes in junior Leon Krapf, who boasted seven clean sheets on his resume in 2018.
Friday's contest with the Mountaineers will be streamed live on AppStateSports.com while Sunday's tilt with the Wolfpack will be carried on ACC Network Extra, available on the ESPN app and WatchESPN.com.
This weekend will mark the third straight season that St. John's has opened with a pair of road matchups. In 2017, a year that saw St. John's finish third in the BIG EAST, the Johnnies split a pair of contests at Drexel and Loyola Maryland to kick off the campaign. Last season, the Red Storm fell at UC Santa Barbara before dominating Loyola Marymount, 4-1, two days later. Since the first year of the program's existence in 1979, the Johnnies are 21-11-8 in season openers, including a 15-7-6 record under Dr. Dave Masur, who enters 2019 ranked seventh among active Division I head coaches in total victories (408) and 12th in winning percentage (.674).
The Red Storm last began a season in North Carolina in 2003, dropping a pair of decisions to Wake Forest and UNC at the Wake Forest Classic in Winston-Salem. That year, however, St. John's would go 17-4-3 the rest of the way and finish as the national runners up. 2003 also produced the program's first MAC Hermann Trophy winner in Chris Wingert, who went on to enjoy a 14-year career in Major League Soccer.
The Johnnies enter 2019 coming off back-to-back appearances in the BIG EAST Tournament, finishing sixth in the league last season despite sporting the nation's second youngest roster. The Red Storm returns plenty of talent from that 2018 squad, including reigning BIG EAST Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-BIG EAST selection Skage Simonsen. Simonsen became the first St. John's player to win the conference's top rookie award since the national championship season of 1996 and the only freshman in program history to be named to the All-BIG EAST Second Team. In addition, Tani Oluwaseyi also earned selection to the BIG EAST All-Freshman Team a year ago.
St. John's is the only team in the BIG EAST that welcomes back 100 percent of its scoring from 2018. Simonsen and Matt Forster each contributed six goals and four assists last fall, accounting for two-thirds of the team's total offensive production. Forster, a two-year team captain and the only member of the Red Storm roster to have seen action in each of the last three seasons, is the team's active career leader in games played, goals and assists. Oluwaseyi found the back of the net four times in 2018 while Johan Aquilon and Brandon Duarte each etched their name of the score sheet once.
Appalachian State returns plenty of talent from a squad that went 8-6-3 in 2018, welcoming back 18 letterwinners and eight of the team's 11 starters.
The Mountaineers return two of their three top goals scorers from a year ago, led sophomore forward Camden Holbrook, who registered six goals on just 22 shots during his freshman campaign. Sophomore midfielder Alex Hernandez tied for second on the team with three goals and needed only 12 shots to do so.
In goal, the Mountaineers will look to replace the efforts of last year's starter, Jake Chasteen, who logged seven shutouts in 17 appearances with a 0.84 goals against average. Anchored by Chasteen, App State ranked 29th nationally in team goals against average last season.
Friday night will mark the first ever meeting between St. John's and the Mountaineers.
NC State finished one spot out of the United Soccer Coaches Preseason Top 25 Poll, missing the 25th spot by just eight points. After that poll was released on Aug. 6, the Wolfpack picked up a pair of impressive exhibition wins, downing No. 6 North Carolina in Chapel Hill before topping VCU in Raleigh, a place where NC State went undefeated (8-0-3) a season ago.
The Wolfpack won its first NCAA Tournament contest since 1994 last fall, defeating Campbell by a convincing 4-1 margin in the first round before falling to eventual national champion Maryland, 2-0.
NC State returns its top three goal scorers from that NCAA Tournament team, led by senior midfielder Gabriel Machado. Machado tallied six goals, three of which were game winners, and three assists in 2018.
Junior midfielder David Loera led the team and finished fourth in the ACC last season with seven assists.
NC State also returns a stalwart between the pipes in junior Leon Krapf, who boasted seven clean sheets on his resume in 2018.
Players Mentioned
Defender
/ Men's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Men's Soccer
Midfielder
/ Men's Soccer
Forward/Midfielder
/ Men's Soccer
Midfielder
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