JAMAICA, N.Y. – St. John's scored a pair of second half goals on corner kicks to rally past Villanova 2-1 in the BIG EAST regular season opener for both Friday night at Belson Stadium.
Karson Vazquez gave the Wildcats a 1-0 lead in the 11th minute, but the Red Storm (4-3-1 overall, 1-0-0 BIG EAST) struck early in the second half to level the match. A 72nd minute goal that began with one of 12 corner kicks put St. John's on top.
"We didn't get the result we wanted but on the whole I thought it was a great collective effort," said Villanova head coach Mark Fetrow. "We had guys who hadn't played a lot of minutes for us step up and get some Big East experience. That will help us. I thought the energy and effort was excellent, similar to what we saw in the first few games this season. We had lost a little bit of that in the past two games and it was good to see that back."
The Wildcats press offense created a tantalizing scoring opportunity for the Wildcats in the eighth minute. With Jayse Rand applying pressure near the top of the 18 yard box a misplay by the Red Storm misplay put the ball on Rand's foot with no one standing between him and Red Storm goalkeeper Nico Bezama.
But Rand's shot was stopped by Bezama for the first save of the night.
A short while later at 10:03, a feed from Sam Nyenka found Karson Vazquez. The junior fired the ball into the net for his first goal of 2026.
"We got the kind of start we've been looking for," Fetrow said. "There were a lot of sound decisions by our guys and I liked the way we played in open space. Karson was able to get that goal and we were where we wanted to be."
The first three shots of the night were taken by the Wildcats.
St. John's got its best attacking opportunity in the 24th minute when Andrew Porucznik lined up a clear look at frame. But the Wildcats' Alex Yagudayev was in position to cradle the ball as he fell to the artificial surface for his initial save of the evening.
Yagudayev's made a pair of spectacular saves in the 33rd minute. On the first he thrust his leg out to deny a re-direction from Henrik Ropstad and then followed that with a lunge near the right post to keep the Red Storm off the scoreboard.
The Wildcats held a 1-0 lead at halftime. St. John's owned an 8-3 advantage in shots while Yagudayev made five saves for Nova over the first 45 minutes.
Senior Josh Oladele got Villanova's first shot on frame of the second half from distance that Bezama was able to scoop up for the save.
A Red Storm corner kick in the 52nd minute resulted in the equalizer. Luca Fargnoli scored at 51:36 after a corner kick was served into the scoring area from the left side. Assists were awarded to Ivar Na Aga and Camron Boumsong.
"We had seen on tape that St. John's has been a more productive team in the second half," stated Fetrow. "This is a team that was in the NCAA Tournament last season and is very good at creating set pieces. We defended some of them well but they're very potent and executed two of them well."
Yagudayev came up with another big save in the 62nd minute, tapping a shot from Ropstad over the crossbar.
A Luke Martelli cross to Nyenka in the 69th minute created an opportunity on the attack but the ball was re-directed by the Nyenka's boot over the net.
The series of Red Storm corner kicks produced a second St. John's goal when Kaief Tomlinson finished a corner kick into the net at 70:53.
Martelli generated a chance in the 78th minute with a run down the right side and a firm blast that Bezama was able to deflect out of harm's way. Oladele fired a blast that hit the crossbar, narrowly missing a game-tying blast.
"We changed a few things up and went with two forwards," Fetrow said. "That and the effort of the guys allowed us to create good chances. Josh had the one off the crossbar and Luke and Sam nearly connected there too."
Villanova returns to Higgins Soccer Complex on Tuesday to host Philly Soccer Six rival Drexel on UNITAS Day (4 p.m./ESPN+).
