St. John's Alistair Johnston celebrates the 3-1 win over Creighton.
NEW YORK – The seeds held after the first round of the BIG EAST Men’s Soccer Championship presented by Jeep as No. 3 seed St. John’s defeated No. 6 seed Creighton, 3-1, and No. 4 seed Xavier shut out No. 5 Providence, 3-0.
For St. John’s (9-6-3), the victory at home at Belson Stadium was the first win in the BIG EAST Championship since 2011 when the Red Storm won its last tournament title. Xavier (11-5-2) advanced its home record to 8-1-0, capping off a eight match home winning streak on Saturday night. Xavier heads back to the semifinal round for the third time since 2013.
Both winning teams had players with multi-goal games as St. John’s sophomore Alistair Johnston and Xavier redshirt sophomore Samson Sergi each tallied two.
St. John’s will head to Washington, D.C. to face No. 2 Georgetown on Semifinal Wednesday playing in the first semifinal at 1 p.m. at Shaw Field. Xavier will play at No. 1 seed Butler in the 7 p.m. semifinal, facing the Bulldogs for the second time in a week. Both matches will be on the BIG EAST Digital Network.
St. John’s 3, Creighton 1
St. John’s wasted no time on Saturday evening at Belson Stadium, scoring twice in the opening seven minutes of its BIG EAST Quarterfinal match with Creighton before eventually downing the Bluejays, 3-1, to earn a date with Georgetown in the semifinals. Sophomore midfielder Alistair Johnston recorded his second brace of the season, scoring the Red Storm’s second and third goals of the evening to seal the victory. Classmate Matt Forster kicked off the offensive flurry for the Johnnies in the fourth minute with his third goal of the season before assisting on Johnston’s first tally just three minutes and 20 seconds later. Senior Harry Cooksley, who was named the BIG EAST Midfielder of the Year on Friday, assisted on all three goals for the Red Storm, becoming the first St. John’s player since Tadeu Terra against LIU Brooklyn on Sept. 19, 2010, to register three helpers in a single contest. For Creighton, BIG EAST Co-Offensive Player of the Year Ricky Lopez-Espin netted his league-leading 12th goal of the season to cut the deficit to one in the 21st minute. Luke Haakenson and Marios Lomis assisted on the goal.
Xavier 3, Providence 0
Samson Sergi scored twice and Simen Hestnes added the exclamation point to lead Xavier men's soccer in a 3-0 win over Providence. Junior goalkeeper Colin Hanley came up with some big saves in the second half to keep the Friars off the board, keeping his third clean sheet in five starts with three saves on the night. Providence had a 17-16 edge in shots, but the Musketeers held a 6-2 lead in corner kick opportunities. Xavier has now out-cornered its opponents 130-64 this season. Sergi’s first goal came in the sixth minute, re-directing a left-footed chip from Cory Brown to the near post to get XU on the board. His second goal was in the 25th minute. Hestnes’ goal came in the 62nd. Xavier’s keeper Colin Hanley and Providence’s goalie Colin Miller each had three saves a piece.