Men's Soccer Begins Two-Game Road Swing at No. 10 St. John's Tuesday

Tuesday, October 8

Queens, NY

7:00 PM

Temple University

No. 10 St. John's

Men's Soccer Begins Two-Game Road Swing at No. 10 St. John's Tuesday

10.7.19 | Men's Soccer

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PHILADELPHIA – The Temple men's soccer team (3-5-1, 0-1-1 AAC) will begin a two-game road stretch on Tuesday, Oct. 8 as they head to Queens, N.Y. to take on No. 10 St. John's (9-1, 3-0 Big East). The Owls will look to extend their unbeaten streak to three as they search for their first-ever victory over the Red Storm in their third meeting in as many years.

Last Time Out
> Temple is coming off of a 1-1 double overtime draw against conference-foe Cincinnati on Saturday night. The Owls struck first in the eighth minute, but the Bearcats responded just five minutes later to force the AAC match into 110 minutes of action.
> The Owls wasted no time out the gate as Lukas Fernades drove up the field in the first minute of play. The senior captain sent a far-post cross that found Jalen Campbell, who sent the first shot of the game just high.
> The Cherry and White pressure paid off when they notched their quickest goal of the season in just the eighth minute. Redshirt junior Brandon Johnson buried a header off of an Esteban Suarez corner kick to secure his first-ever goal for Temple and give the Owls the early lead.
> The Bearcats responded just five minutes later when traffic in the box deflected the ball to the foot of Mason Volker, who slipped it past senior goalkeeper Simon Lefebvre for his first goal of the season. Each team produced threatening chances over the remaining 97 minutes but neither team was able to find the game-winner.

Scouting the Owls
> Temple is coached by Brian Rowland in his second season at the helm of the program. He's led the Owls to a 3-5-1 record so far this season after opening up with an extremely challenging non-conference schedule. St. John's is the third nationally ranked opponent the Owls will face thus far after taking on then No. 13 (now No. 5) Georgetown and then No. 12 (now No. 11) UCF.
> Fernandes leads the Temple offense with five points from a pair of goals and an assist in eight games played. He's fired off a team-high 33 shots with 18 on frame, spearheading the Temple offense that has outshot opponents 119-82 so far this season. Freshman Amir Cohen trails his senior captain with three points from one goal and one assist this year.
> The Owls have been a powerhouse on the defensive end this season, shutting out opponents on three occasions and allowing just nine goals in as many games played. Lefebvre has saved 25 shots fired his way, earning a goals against average of 0.98 and a save percentage of .735. The backline of Pierre Cayet, Mickael Borger, Johnson and Suarez prevented Cincinnati from taking a single shot on goal in Temple's most recent contest, marking the second time this season Lefebvre did not have to make a single save during game action.

Scouting No. 10 St. John's
> St. John's is coached by Dr. David Masur in his 28th year with the program. Also serving as the Associate Athletics Director for the Red Storm, he entered the 2019 season the seventh-winningest active Division I head men's soccer coach by victories (408) and the 12^th-winningest by percentage (.674). This season, Masur has led the squad to a 9-1 record so far as the team has worked its way as high as the No. 9 spot in the national polls. Their lone loss of the season came to the defending national champions, as they fell at No. 25 Maryland in double overtime in late September.
> The Red Storm is coming off of a dominating 4-0 win over Marquette to remain undefeated in Big East play. Their 9-1-0 record marks the program's best start through 10 games in 11 years, and their 3-0-0 Big East record is their best since 2004. The win was propelled by a brace from Tani Oluwaseyi and goals from Rafael Bustamante and Atila Ashrafi.
> Oluwaseyi leads the powerful St. John's offense with 13 points from six goals and one assist. Trailing him is Niko Petridis with 12 points from four goals and as many assists. In total, the Red Storm has outscored opponents 23-5 this season while also outshooting their competition, 138-79.
> Jan Hoffelner and Luka Gavran have split time between the posts for the Red Storm nearly evenly. Hoffelner has allowed just two goals in 495 minutes and notched 10 saves for a perfect record of 4-0-0. In 439:20 minutes this season, Gavran has allowed three goals and thwarted 14 shots for a 5-1-0 record overall.

The Series
> The Owls are 0-2 against the Red Storm as have not scored a goal against St. John's since the teams first met in 2017. Most recently, Temple battled their Big East opponent into overtime in 2018 but ultimately fell, 0-1.