JAMAICA, N.Y. – St. John's scored twice in a span of 3:21 in the second half to erase a Villanova lead and down the Wildcats 2-1 in a BIG EAST matchup Saturday night.
"All in all, I thought it was a pretty ugly game," stated Villanova head coach Mark Fetrow. "We knew they would apply pressure on us right from the start and I thought it took us some time to adjust to that in the first half. But we settled in and got the goal, and we felt confident going in with a 1-0 lead at halftime.
"I really thought that we would be able to keep them at bay in the second half but a couple of mistakes and quality execution on their part cost us."
St. John's generated the first four shots of the night, the last of which was scooped up by Wildcats' goalkeeper Alex Yagudayev for his first save of the night to keep the match level at zero 17 minutes into this one at Belson Field.
Kyle Dixon and Michael teDuits countered with a pair of shots for the Wildcats but neither found the net for Nova.
Yagudayev came up big in the 29th minute when St. John's Miguel Diaz fired a ball toward the top center of the net. The Brooklyn native – playing in the borough of nearby Queens – leaped to knock the ball over the crossbar and out of harm's way.
Freshman Karson Vazquez helped create the first goal of the night. The freshman dribbled in toward goal with a pair of Red Storm defenders charging to him. His attempt to cross the ball through the middle deflected off the left arm of the St. John's defender. After a video review, a penalty kick was awarded.
Grad student Jorge Garcia calmly deposited the ball inside the right post and Villanova led 1-0 at the 38:28 mark.
The Wildcats took that 1-0 edge into the locker room at halftime despite being outshot 10-3 in the period. Yagudayev made five saves over the first 45 minutes.
The Red Storm came out firing in the first minute of the second half, sending two shots from in close that Yagudayev stopped. A lengthy video review to see if a Wildcat had struck the ball with a hand inside the 18-yard box followed but the original call of no foul stood.
St. John's found its equalizer in the 65th minute. Diaz send a cross through the box from the right side that went directly to Tyler Morck who got his boot on the ball near the goal line at 64:39 to level matters at one.
"We just missed marking one of their forwards near the far post," Fetrow said.
A Red Storm counter a short while later led to a second goal. This time Jackson Gould dribbled in on the right side toward the end line before sending a cross to Martin Kozak at the near post. Kozak redirected the pass into the net at 68:13 to give the Red Storm a 2-1 edge.
Dixon sent a header on frame in the 71st minute that Red Storm goalkeeper Alex MacLachlan made the save on. There were a couple of more pushes forward, but Villanova could not find a second goal over the final 20 minutes.
"I thought we had some chances to go up 2-0 and that would have turned the game upside down," Fetrow said. "But we were sloppy with our quality and didn't finish those plays.
"There were a lot of long faces in that locker room. We're disappointed in not getting the result. We've competed well but to compete to win in the Big East takes more. We've got to take care of every detail. That's the next step."
