Box Score
COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. – A red card in the 13th minute failed to slow Saint John's soccer in an 11-1 win over North Central (Minn.) on Tuesday, Sept. 22, at Haws Field.
A red card was issued on a collision in the SJU box 12:36 into the game and North Central's David Ajayi converted the penalty kick for a 2-1 SJU lead. The Johnnies (8-1, 1-1 MIAC) played the remaining 77:24 a man down and managed to score nine unanswered goals. The home team registered a 27-10 advantage in shots (14-3 on goal) and a 12-2 margin in corner kicks after the red card.
Junior forward
Ronan O'Connor (Woodbury, Minn./Hill-Murray) scored the third hat trick of his career and tripled his goals for the season before the 19th minute. He opened the scoring after dribbling through three Ram defenders from midfield before launching his shot into the bottom left corner.
His second goal came off a sophomore
James Torguson (Shakopee, Minn.) corner kick four minutes after the red card and he completed the hat trick just over a minute later with another header off a pass from freshman forward
Ethan Brown (Lakeville, Minn./Rosemount) at the goal line.
O'Connor also scored a hat trick and tallied seven total points in last year's 7-0 win at North Central (1-6, 1-1 UMAC).
Sophomore forward
Eli Ryan (Victoria, Minn./Minnetonka) scored the eventual game-winning goal off a penalty kick to break up O'Connor's natural hat trick.
Brown added one of his own off another shot through the North Central defense.
SJU scored three more times before the half, one from freshman forward
Jacob Oliver (St. Cloud, Minn./Cathedral), a second penalty kick from sophomore midfielder
Gabe Franzman (Bettendorf, Iowa) and another directly off a corner kick by freshman defender
Gavin Spellman (Denver, Colo./East).
Oliver scored again and nearly completed another hat trick off a rebound from classmate
Grady Monette (Andover, Minn.). Fellow freshmen
Charles Foslien (Ramsey, Minn./Anoka) and
Adam Bane (Woodbury, Minn.) put two more on the board before the horn.
The 11 goals scored are the most for SJU since a 13-0 win over Cornell (Iowa) on Sept. 10, 1994, in Collegeville.
All four SJU keepers saw time in goal, with sophomore
Austin Ertel (Brownsburg, Ind./Lawrence Central) making a pair of saves and sophomore
Alex Keekley (St. Louis Park, Minn./Minnetonka) adding another. Sophomore
Cole Hanson (Urbandale, Iowa) and freshman
Lucas Noll (Omaha, Neb./Westside) each played 12 minutes without a shot faced.
A total of 36 Johnnies saw playing time.
The Johnnies meet No. 22 Colorado College (4-1-1 overall) for a 7:15 p.m. game this Saturday, Sept. 26, at Division I Creighton's Morrison Stadium in Omaha, Neb.
