St. John’s Blanks Fordham, 1-0

Monday, September 6

Queens, N.Y. (Belson Stadium)

7 p.m.

St. John's University

2-2-0

Fordham

0-3-1

Fordham

St. John's

9/6/2021 10:07:00 PM | Men's Soccer

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Bennett scores, Gavran stops four shots in second win of the season

By: Andrew O'Connell

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's soccer team rebounded with a 1-0 victory over local Fordham foe on Monday night at Belson Stadium.

Sophomore Andrew Bennett netted the game-winner, the first goal of his Red Storm career, in the 11th minute of action. Brandon Knapp and Lucas Bartlett picked up assists on the play.

Luka Gavran proved spectacular between the pipes once again for the Red Storm (2-2-0), making four saves to record his second clean sheet of the season. Three of Gavran's four stops were acrobatic efforts, as he punched blasts over the bar in the 20th and 33rd minutes before picking a ball out of the air with one hand off a deflection in the 55th.

St. John's put on the pressure early, recording three shots in the opening five minutes of play. A precursor of things to come, two of those three shots came off the foot of Bennett.

Six minutes later, Bennett got the Red Storm on the board. The play resulted from a series of skillful St. John's passes, as Drew Rosen played the ball in from the right flank toward Knapp, who touched it to Bartlett down the side of the six-yard box. The graduate student then sent a cross in front for Bennett, who absorbed contact from a Fordham defender and flicked it home with his left foot.

After the St. John's goal, the Rams earned six corners in the next 25 minutes of play, but Gavran and the Red Storm backline held tight and managed to keep Fordham off the board.

Trailing 1-0 at the break, Fordham got its best look on goal of the match in the 55th, but Gavran came up with a highlight reel stop to maintain the Red Storm advantage. Following a series of Fordham touches in the box, Luke McNamara deflected a ball from inside the six that would have been an impossible stop for nearly any keeper. Luckily for the Red Storm, the wingspan of the 6-foot-6 Gavran allowed the redshirt junior to make a one-handed grab and keep the Johnnies on top.

The Red Storm nearly added onto its lead twice in the closing minutes of play, as Knapp sent a shot just wide in the 79th before Bartlett put a touch too much air under a free kick in the 85th. Regardless, St. John's held on for the win and returned to .500 on the season.

St. John's will play the penultimate game of its homestand on Friday night, welcoming Boston University to Belson Stadium for a 7 p.m. kick-off. The contest will be broadcast on FloSports.