Sverre Wegge Gundhus raced in behind the Seton Hall defense and the chance to seal a critical Big East home win was at the feet of the St. John’s soccer team’s leading scorer. But the junior from Norway was stopped by Pirates goalkeeper Paul McHenry, who kicked out his left leg and denied the Red Storm of a victory Sunday night.
Gundhus looked up to the sky in bewilderment.
“If this isn’t a goal, what’s going to give us a goal?” he asked himself.
The answer was nothing, at least not on this night as the 15th-ranked Red Storm left Belson Stadium disappointed following a 0-0 draw with Seton Hall.
The hero for the Hall (4-2-1, 1-0-1 Big East) was McHenry, one of just three seniors on the Pirates roster. The Ephratra, Pa., native made seven saves, none more dramatic than robbing Gundhus in the first of two 10-minute overtime periods.
“That was great,” longtime Seton Hall coach Manny Schellscheidt said. “That was a game-changer. If he doesn’t make a save there, the game is in the bag.”
Nelson Becerra, last year’s Big East Midfielder of the Year, played a perfectly weighted ball behind the Pirates defense that Gundhus latched onto.
“It was a great ball by Nelly, but it was one of those great saves and it wasn’t a great finish either,” Gundhus said. “I get the ball a little too close to me, I’m trying to put it in the right-side corner and when I think about it I probably should have rounded the keeper. In the end it was a great save, but to be honest as a striker you should finish that and I take the blame.”
Schellscheidt said McHenry is a better goalkeeper when he’s got a lot to do and that was certainly the case against St. John’s (2-1-3, 1-0-1), which fired 14 shots his way and had 13 fruitless corner kicks.
Gundhus had another opportunity five minutes from full time, but McHenry dived to his right to parry it away for a corner kick. Earlier in the second half, Becerra’s cross was flicked on by Gundhus to an open Walter Hines in front of goal. But McHenry quickly raced off his line to make the save.
“We need to be better overall with our effort and focus in the attacking half of the field and in making better team decisions and being able to deal with the kind of intense, physical Big East play that’s out there,” Red Storm coach Dave Masur said.
While St. John’s “lacked that 10 percent that we had last year to finish off games,” according to Gundhus, the Red Storm defense was stellar, keeping a team that has scored two or more goals in all but one of its first six games, off the scoreboard.
Goalkeeper Derby Castillo made three saves to earn his fourth shutout of the year and Masur also credited fullback David Reed’s lockdown defense on outside midfielder Bryan Longo as a key defensively.
“I thought we shut them down fairly well,” Masur said. “ I think Derby had to make a couple of big plays in the first half, which were important for us to stay in the game, but we like to think that we maybe took the game to them a little bit more. But at the same token they did a good job.”
Frustrated during the game, Gundhus said he’s already put the draw behind him. Beginning Monday, preparation is for a clash with Connecticut in Storrs on Friday night.
“Our focus is not on this game,” Gundhus said. “We’ve just got to focus on UConn and Providence, starting with UConn Friday night. We won’t even think about this game.”