St. John’s Returns Home to Host No. 12 Xavier

QUEENS, N.Y. (Oct. 4, 2022) – The St. John's men's soccer team will return to Belson Stadium on Wednesday night when it plays host to no. 12 Xavier, one of eight undefeated teams remaining in the nation.

KIck-off is set for 7 p.m. on the BIG EAST Digital Network, available on FloFC. Drew Casey will have the call from Queens.

St. John's (3-6-1, 1-2-0 BIG EAST) returns home after falling, 2-1, on Saturday night against Seton Hall in South Orange. After conceding an own goal in the 59th minute of action, the Red Storm equalized on an Antek Sienkiel strike in the 79th minute. The Red Storm was not able to hold on for the point, however, as Seton Hall's Andrea Borg netted a game-winner in the 85th.

The Johnnies came out on the wrong end of the result on Saturday despite outshooting the Pirates, 17-7, including a 6-3 edge in shots on goal. On the season, St. John's has bettered or equaled its opponent in the shot column in five of its six losses.

Sienkiel's marker against the Pirates was his sixth of the season and his second of BIG EAST play. Entering the week, Sienkiel's half-dozen goals are tied for third in the conference and 22nd in the nation. The Marist transfer, who scored just twice in 38 career appearances with the Red Foxes, is the first St. John's player to score six or more goals in a season since Tani Oluwaseyi netted 11 on his way to BIG EAST Offensive Player of the Year honors in 2019.

Wesley Leggett assisted on Sienkiel's goal against the Pirates for his team-leading third helper of the season. The senior forward from Lawrence, N.J., also registered a game-high four shots, all of which narrowly missed their target.

The Red Storm has enjoyed success this season in Queens, registering all three of its wins at Belson Stadium. In its most recent home tilt, the Johnnies defeated Princeton, 2-1, in a rematch of last fall's NCAA Tournament First Round.

Under the direction of first-year head coach John Higgins, Xavier (7-0-3, 1-0-2 BIG EAST) is off its best start in a decade, as the 2012 squad went unbeaten in 14 consecutive matches to begin the campaign.

The Musketeers , picked to finish last in the league by a preseason vote of the league's coaches, have made their mark primarily through their defense. Redshirt junior goalkeeper Cole Jensen has logged clean sheets in six of the team's first 10 games, including back-to-back shutouts against Marquette and UConn at home. Entering the week, Jensen carries a 0.50 goals against average and a .865 percentage, good enough for eighth and 10th in the country, respectively, in those categories.

Offensively, Xavier's 1.6 goals per game have been distributed relatively evenly, as five different Musketeers have found the back of the net multiple times with none scoring more than three. Sophomore Fabrizio Bernal de la Garza has netted a team-high three goals, as has junior Jerome Jolly.

St. John's and Xavier will meet for the 10th time in the history of the two programs when the teams square off on Wednesday night.

The Red Storm is 4-3-2 all-time against the Musketeers, including a 3-0-1 mark dating back to 2017. Each of their last two meetings at Belson Stadium have ended with the Red Storm claiming a multi-goal victory over a ranked Xavier squad. In 2019, then-No. 9 St. John's went down 1-0 early before rallying for a 3-1 win over the then-No. 19 Musketeers. In 2017, Xavier was ranked 19th in the Soccer America poll when the Johnnies came away with a 3-0 win at Belson.

Prior to the Red Storm's four-game unbeaten streak against the Musketeers, Xavier began its BIG EAST tenure by going unbeaten in four against St. John's from 2013-16. Two of those results, a double-overtime win and a scoreless tie, came at Belson Stadium.

The teams first met on Oct. 15, 1989, a 1-0 win for the Johnnies in Queens.

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Players Mentioned

Wesley Leggett

Tani Oluwaseyi

Antek Sienkiel

St. John's University Athletics