St. John’s to Host UAlbany in Monday Home Opener

QUEENS, N.Y. – Following a hard-fought, one-goal loss at No. 6 Clemson in its season opener on Thursday night, the St. John's men's soccer team will begin a five-game homestand on Monday against UAlbany. Kick-off from Belson Stadium is set for 7 p.m. on ESPN3, available on ESPN.com and the ESPN app. Ralph Bednarczyk will be on the call from Queens.

Tickets for the match, the first at Belson Stadium open to the public in nearly two years, are available by visiting RedStormTix.com or by calling 1-888-GO-STORM.

During their first match of the season against the sixth-ranked Tigers, the Johnnies led for more than 55 minutes before a pair of late Clemson goals extended the home side's unbeaten streak at Riggs Field to 26 games. Anthony Herbert tallied his first goal as a member of the Red Storm in the ninth minute, heading home an Einar Lye corner kick to give St. John's its first lead of the season. The Johnnies held on to that advantage until an Isaiah Reid equalizer in the 66th minute. Hamady Diop provided the game winner off a free kick in 77th minute. St. John's had a great chance to tie the match with just over five minutes to play, but Clemson keeper George Marks made a cross-body save on a Lucas Bartlett free kick that seemed destined for the back of the net.

Thanks in part to hot and humid conditions last week in South Carolina, 21 Johnnies saw the pitch during the Red Storm's loss to Clemson. No field player registered the full 90 minutes with only two, Lye (81) and Johan Aquilon (80), playing 80 or more.

St. John's has won each of its last three home openers, including a 1-0 victory over Saint Joseph's just over six months ago. Since the venue opened in 2002, the Red Storm is 116-41-32 at Belson Stadium, good enough for a winning percentage of .698. During the 2019 regular season, St. John's went 7-1-0 in Queens with its only loss coming at the hands of the eventual national champion, Georgetown. The Red Storm has won six straight games on campus against non-league foes dating back to 2018 and is 12-3-4 all-time in Belson Stadium home openers.

After closing out the month of August with the Great Danes, St. John's will host four more home matches in the span of two weeks. The Johnnies will welcome Marist (Sept. 4) and Fordham (Sept. 6) over Labor Day Weekend before wrapping the pre-conference portion of its schedule against Boston University (Sept. 10) and Columbia (Sept. 13).

The Great Danes will make the trip to Queens after disposing of Fairfield, 1-0, in their season opener on Thursday night. Senior midfielder Haflidi Sigurdarson scored the game winner in the 62nd minute on assists from Andrew Weiner and Giuliano Lucca. Shots were 11-6 in favor of UAlbany, including a 10-2 advantage in the second half.

UAlbany went 3-5-1 during the 2021 spring season, including a 2-4-0 mark against conference opponents. Adam Aoumaich led the team in scoring as a freshman last spring, tallying four goals on just 18 shots.

Senior goalkeeper Carlos Tofern recorded the clean sheet against Fairfield on Thursday, needing just one save to register his first Division I shutout. In his first season with the Great Danes this past spring, the 2019 ECC Goalkeeper of the Year at Bridgeport tallied a 1.34 goals against average and a .774 save percentage.

St. John's and UAlbany will meet for the first time in the history of the two programs when the teams take to the pitch on Monday.

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Players Mentioned

Johan Aquilon

Lucas Bartlett

Anthony Herbert

Einar Lye

St. John's University Athletics