St. John's' Progress on Display in First Big East Win Since 2016

Justin Turri couldn’t help but tease his St. John’s players Saturday after a 13-9 milestone victory over Marquette.

The Red Storm erased a five-goal deficit for the first time since 2019. And they won a Big East game for the first time since 2016, snapping a 35-game conference skid in their league opener.

“I told the guys after the game, ‘Why go 4-0 down when you can go 5-0 down?’” Turri said.

Yes, St. John’s (4-7, 1-0 Big East) is in the habit of making things interesting on game days, surging past Marquette just a week after spotting Le Moyne four goals in what became a 9-7 Red Storm victory.

But St. John’s has also become intriguing in a bigger-picture sense, and not simply because of Saturday’s breakthrough. The Red Storm had won just three games over the last three seasons ‑ including an 0-14 showing in 2023, Turri’s debut season ‑ but had also shown some spunk toward the end of last spring.

St. John’s lost by two goals to Denver. It also pushed Providence to overtime. Both games came in the final three weeks of the regular season. Despite the zero in the win column, this was not a team beaten down by outcomes.

If anything, it was one eager to push forward.

“Last year, when we got here, they were just waiting for more to be asked of them,” Turri said. “We went 6 a.m. [for] practice in the fall semester. It was a little bit of a tone setter, nothing crazy, and we asked them at the beginning of the semester, ‘We’re thinking about doing this,’ and they said, ‘Yeah, absolutely, let’s go.’ They just wanted to do things differently. They wanted to prove something, and we still have a lot to prove.”

Two things stand out in a year-over-year look at the Red Storm’s numbers. The most obvious is a faceoff percentage that’s jumped from last nationally (26.5 percent) to 46th out of 76 Division I teams (47.7 percent). The team’s lone true faceoff man at the time left the program in the fall of 2022, leaving St. John’s to piece things together as best it could. The addition of UMBC transfer Dane Armstrong (52.6 percent) helped give the Red Storm a chance to even possession.

Then there’s the saves per game, which has dipped from 14.57 a game (sixth nationally) to 12.27 (36th). Goalie Kyle Munson has made fewer stops because he’s seen considerably fewer shots, and he’s bumped his save percentage from 49.0 percent to 52.3 percent in the process.

Meanwhile, a defense that had its top five poles back from last year was fortified with the addition of grad transfer Jordan Hayes (Towson) to its short stick unit. And an offense that already featured Brian Kelly, who quietly delivered 44 and 48 points in his first two seasons, was ready to take advantage of its extra opportunities. He already has 23 goals and 13 assists.

“He took the step from last year as a sophomore to be a playmaker where he had to be and probably had the ball too much to now being the leader of the offense, being the guy that stirs the drink,” Turri said. “In a game like Marquette, we needed a spark, and he was attacking his matchup really well, and he’s just as capable of going 4 and 1 as he is 1 and 4.”

It was Kelly who scored the Red Storm’s first three goals, and defensive midfielder-turned-attackman Bobby Seel (20 goals, 10 assists in 2024) who fed the first of those scores. St. John’s had erased its five-goal deficit by halftime, then scored six of the first seven goals of the second half to pull away.

And just like that, the Red Storm was above .500 in conference play for the first time since 2015.

“I think everyone was really nervous - excited nervous - because this was the first time I think in a long time here going into Big East play that there was an expectation that we’re going to play our game, and if we do that better than Marquette does, we’re going to win,” Turri said. “That almost overtook the beginning couple minutes of it, and it took us a bit to settle down.”

Expectations can be a crucible, even for a team accustomed to them. The Red Storm seem to be savoring them, even if the rest of the regular season - starting with Friday’s trip to Denver - is daunting.

It’s clear St. John’s has improved compared to its recent past. But its overall record suggests it still has a way to go. Little wonder Turri was pleased about how his team reacted when it returned to practice Monday.

“I think the general consensus is, ‘That was really cool. Uh, let’s do it again,’” Turri said. “With the same understanding that no one’s going to expect it and no one’s going to give you any benefit of the doubt.”