Red Storm to Host Creighton for BIG EAST Home Opener

QUEENS, N.Y. – After downing Xavier in its BIG EAST opener on Saturday, the St. John's men's soccer team will kick off the home portion of its conference schedule on Friday night when it welcomes Creighton to Belson Stadium for a 7 p.m. kick-off. The game, which will feature the play-by-play call of Matt Ambrose, will be broadcast on the BIG EAST Digital Network on FloSports.

St. John's extended its winning streak to four games by claiming its first ever road victory against Xavier with a 1-0 victory in Cincinnati. Brandon Knapp broke a lengthy deadlock in the 71st minute, heading home a cross from Jared Juleau to provide all the offense St. John's would need for the win. On the evening, St. John's outshot the Musketeers by a 13-4 margin, including a 5-3 edge in shots on goal. The Red Storm backline held Xavier without a shot for the entirety of the second half, as the Johnnies out-chanced the Musketeers by a margin of 7-0 in the latter stanza.

For his efforts, Knapp was named to the TopDrawerSoccer Team of the Week for the second time in as many chances. Knapp, who played his first three years with the Johnnies primarily as a holding midfielder, has been an offensive catalyst for the Red Storm this fall. In the absence of classmate and 2019 BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year Tani Oluwaseyi due to injury, Knapp has scored three goals, all game-winners, and dished out four assists. Entering the weekend, Knapp leads the team and ranks second in the conference in goals, assists and points. The senior from Abingdon, Md., was named to the All-BIG EAST Third Team as both a sophomore and a junior.

In addition to Knapp's national accolade, two other Johnnies received weekly honors from the BIG EAST on Monday. Luka Gavran was named the BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week for the first time after posting a pair of shutouts and improving to 5-2-0 with wins over Xavier and Columbia. The redshirt junior from Hamilton, Ont., has tallied four shutouts in just seven opportunities this season while compiling a 0.71 goals against average and an .800 save percentage. Lucas Bartlett earned a nod to the BIG EAST Weekly Honor Roll after playing all 180 minutes of those two clean sheets on the backline and adding the game-winning goal against Columbia. The graduate transfer from Drake has two goals and two assists on the season to rank second on the team in both of those categories.

The Red Storm will look to continue a string of recent success in conference home openers, as the Johnnies are unbeaten in their last seven Belson Stadium BIG EAST debuts dating back to 2014, including five consecutive wins entering this season.

Creighton comes to Queens with a record of 1-3-1 on the season after dropping its BIG EAST opener to No. 1 Georgetown at home on Saturday night. Trailing 1-0 late in the second half, the Bluejays evened the score with a 78th minute goal from Diego Gutierrez, but the top-ranked Hoyas struck again the final minute of play to escape with a 2-1 victory in front of 6,577 fans.

After opening the season with a pair of losses to Tulsa and Saint Louis, Creighton defeated then-No. 1 Indiana, 3-0, in Bloomington before playing Ohio State to a 1-1 draw.

The Bluejays boast a pair of two-goal scorers in Gutierrez and Manu Toledano. Last season, Gutierrez earned BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year honors after posting five goals and six assists in 11 games.

Senior goalkeeper Paul Kruse, a 2018 Second Team All-BIG EAST selection, has played every minute between the pipes this season for Creighton, turning in a goals against average of 1.72 and a .727 save percentage.

BIG EAST opponents since 2013, St. John's and Creighton will continue a series history that featured some memorable matchups long before the teams shared a conference affiliation.

The Red Storm and the Bluejays first met in the 1996 College Cup, as the Johnnies claimed a 2-1 victory in the national semifinal en route to the first NCAA Championship in school history. Six years later in 2002, Creighton upset the fourth-seeded Red Storm in the round of 16 on its way to another College Cup appearance. The following year with a trip to the national semifinal on the line, St. John's took down the Bluejays, 3-2, in College Park, Md. Playing a man down and trailing 2-0 with 25 minutes to play, the Red Storm scored three times in 14 minutes to clinch its third trip to the College Cup.

Creighton began the BIG EAST portion of its series history against St. John's with three straight wins. In their last three meetings with the Bluejays, the Johnnies are 2-1-0, including a 2-0 win on their last meeting on Oct. 19, 2019, in Omaha.

Overall, St. John's is 4-5-2 against Creighton dating back to 1996.

Red Storm to Host Creighton for BIG EAST Home Opener

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Players Mentioned

Lucas Bartlett

Luka Gavran

Jared Juleau

Brandon Knapp

Tani Oluwaseyi

St. John's University Athletics