Nationally Ranked Seton Hall Survives Red Storm in Dramatic Overtime Win

Hall SportsAlexander Leyboldt

Last night, #22 ranked Seton Hall Pirates traveled to The Big Apple to take on their Big East Rival, St. John’s, and pulled off an incredible comeback to beat the Jonnies 3-2 in extra time, completing the season sweep over the Johnnies. This match marks the first time that the Pirates were able to win at Belson Stadium for the first time in almost seven years. Seton Hall’s record improves to 6-1-2 and 4-1-1 in conference, while St. John’s falls to 4-4-0 and 2-4-0 in conference. This is Seton Hall’s third straight win and it keeps them at level pace with #3 Georgetown, their next opponent, at the top of the Big East table for the Eastern Division.

After a back-and-forth, scoreless first half, St John’s came out firing with a shot on goal within the first twenty seconds of the second half. At the 50th minute Wesley Leggett bagged himself a goal, with Jared Juleau following up with another shortly after in the 53rd, assisted by Tani Oluwaseyi and Einar Lye respectively.

There is a popular saying around the sport of soccer, that a 2-0 lead is considered the most dangerous lead for a team to have. That is because after going two goals up it is common that the leaders get a little too comfortable and complacent. The same could be said about last night after momentum swung back to the pirates in a matter of minutes, as they were rewarded a penalty which was slotted home by JP Marin in the 55th minute.

After continuous pressure during the second half, Seton Hall was able to break through as CJ Tibbling was able to score a spectacular equalizing goal in the 73rd minute. The Swedish native acrobatically flicked the ball to himself with his right foot, followed by a beautiful volley with the same foot over St. John’s goalkeeper Jan Hoffelner. Just like that, there was a tie game heading into the final fifteen minutes.

After ninety minutes, 4 goals and 39 fouls’ worth of action, neither team was able to find the winner. That means two ten-minute periods of golden goal soccer: next goal wins. Not even three minutes into extra time, freshman Raz Amir won the game for the Pirates by scoring the first goal of his collegiate career. Amir received a high cross from Denis Kelmendi into the center of the box, which after a poor clearance from the defender Amir got it past the keeper and off the inside of the right post.

This match marks the first time that Seton Hall Men’s soccer has taken both games from St. Sohn’s since 1991 and is their second comeback victory in a row. The Hall will look to keep this momentum going into the weekend, as they have a massive matchup against #3 Georgetown this Saturday at 3:00PM.