St. John’s to Travel to Villanova on Saturday

QUEENS, N.Y. – The St. John's men's soccer team will head to the Keystone State to take on BIG EAST rival Villanova at Higgins Soccer Complex on Saturday in a 1 p.m. contest.

Saturday's afternoon match will be streamed on BIG EAST Digital Network on FloFC with Matt Janus on the call. Live stats will also be available on RedStormSports.com.

The Johnnies (6-3-3, 1-1-2 BIG EAST) are fresh off a 0-0 draw with Providence, giving them five points in conference play and a third-place mark in the East Division with the Friars.

Goalkeeper Alec McLachlan preserved the clean sheet after staring down 10 shots in total by Providence, turning away all six tries on target en route to a BIG EAST Goalkeeper of the Week nod on Monday. Macoumba Ba led all Johnnies with three shots on the evening while Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau and Colin Veltri put the Red Storm's lone two chances on frame.

Redshirt junior striker Fleuriau Chateau will look to keep a hot foot in Saturday's match, having scored nine goals on the season. With one more goal, the Canadian forward will become just the 13th player in program history to reach double-digit goals in a single season and the first to do so since Tani Oluwaseyi scored 11 in 2019. Fleuriau Chateau is also three tallies away from cracking the program's top 10 in single-season goals, looking to tie Fred Bischoff (1979 & 1980), Roberto DeLuca (1992) and soon-to-be St. John's Hall of Fame Ben Hickey (1995) for ninth.

Despite the week-long hiatus, sophomore Miguel Diaz continues to find himself in the BIG EAST lead and NCAA Division I's top 10 with his seven assists, good for ninth. The Brooklyn, N.Y., native is also one of 20 players to log seven or more assists this season. Of his seven helpers, four have set up Fleuriau Chateau for a goal.

St. John's enters Saturday's matchup with a 25-11-6 record over Villanova while holding a slight 8-7-4 mark in Pennsylvania.

The last time these two teams met at Higgins Soccer Complex, St. John's emerged victorious on a penalty kick just 84 seconds into overtime off the foot of Lucas Bartlett. The victory marked the team's first road win against the Wildcats since 2007. There will be no overtime this season despite three of its last five meetings going into the extra periods.

Villanova enters the weekend match with a 1-5-4 record, going 1-2-1 in conference play.

The Wildcats are coming off an offensive battle with Maryland, dropping a 6-4 contest in College Park on Tuesday. Branden Johns produced a brace for the Wildcats in the setback while Gray Ricca and leading goal scorer Vincent Petrera each netted a tally of their own. Petrera has rattled off a team-best five goals and 13 points through 10 contests while chipping in a trio of assists.

Junior forward Balthi Saunders, who has tallied three goals and four assists on the season, has unloaded 4.3 shots per game, good for fifth in the nation.

Despite the recent offensive success, Villanova has battled on the backline, fighting off a 2.40 goals against average, which is the sixth-highest in the nation.

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Players Mentioned

Macoumba Ba

Miguel Diaz

Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau

Colin Veltri

St. John's University Athletics