No. 9 St. John’s Travels to No. 25 Maryland

QUEENS, N.Y. (Sept. 22, 2019) – After taking down No. 19 Xavier for its first victory of the year against a top 25 foe, the No. 9 St. John's men's soccer team will look make it two ranked wins in a row when it visits No. 25 Maryland on Monday night.

The game, which is slated to start at 7 p.m., will air on BTN Plus.

The Johnnies (7-0-0, 1-0-0 BIG EAST) are off to their best start in program history after winning each of their first seven games, including four by two goals or more. Prior to this season, no St. John's team had won more than five straight decisions to start a season. A result against the Terps would give St. John's its ninth undefeated streak of eight games or longer to start a season with the last coming in 2012 (5-0-3). The school record for the longest unbeaten streak to start a campaign came in 1993, when the Johnnies went unbeaten in 21 straight before falling in the NCAA Tournament.

With 18 goals through seven games, the Red Storm has matched both its win total and goal total from all of 2018. Last season, the Johnnies saw just five different players find the back of the net. This year, 10 players have registered at least one goal.

Leading the way for those goal scorers this season has been Niko Petridis. The senior midfielder has registered at least a goal and an assist in three of his last four games, including a two-goal, one-assist outing against the Musketeers on Friday night. He assisted on Brandon Duarte's equalizer in the 57th, sending a picture perfect corner kick to the back post that resulted in a successful header. Both of Petridis' goals came off spectacular individual efforts, capitalizing on Xavier turnovers and dribbling a considerable distance before beating the keeper. Petridis now leads the team with four goals on the year and is tied for the team lead in assists with three. He is also tied with Xavier Samson Sergi for the BIG EAST lead in points with 11.

St. John's has allowed one goal or fewer in six of its seven games this year with four shutouts and a 0.56 goals against average. Iona, the only team that has scored twice against St. John's, required a penalty kick to do so. Jan Hoffelner and Luka Gavran have split time evenly so far in 2019 and have already matched the team's clean sheet total from all of last season. Gavran has made 11 of the team's 15 saves and sports an .846 save percentage.

St. John's and Maryland will meet for just the 11th time in the history of the two programs on Monday, but the Red Storm and the Terrapins have squared off on college soccer's biggest stage on more than a few occasions. Of their 10 previous meetings, six have come in the NCAA Tournament, including two in the College Cup. St. John's topped Maryland, 1-0, in the 2003 national semifinal before the Terps returned the favor in the 2008 national semifinal, 1-0, in double overtime.

St. John's won the first three games between the teams from 1995-2003, but Maryland has won each of its last seven against the Johnnies. The two programs last met on the opening weekend of the 2015 season, a 4-0 win for Maryland. The Red Storm's lone win in College Park came on Nov. 21, 1999, in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.

Maryland (3-3-0, 0-1-0 Big Ten) enters the contest on the heels of a 3-1 loss to Northwestern in the team's Big Ten opener at Ludwig Field on Friday. With the game tied, 1-1, near the midway mark of the second half, the Wildcats scored in the 66th minute to take the lead before sealing it with an insurance tally in the 86th.

Maryland has scored six goals in six games this season with two apiece coming from forwards Eric Matzelvich and Brayan Padilla. Freshman midfielder Malcolm Johnston leads the team with two assists.

Freshmen Russell Shealy and Niklas Neumann have split time between the pipes this season for Maryland, turning in a combined goals against average of 1.33 with three shutouts.

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Players Mentioned

Brandon Duarte

Luka Gavran

Jan Hoffelner

Niko Petridis

St. John's University Athletics