Expecting to play a game that would determine the Atlantic 10 regular-season championship Saturday night, St. Louis University instead walked out of the locker room for warmups already having clinched.
A result elsewhere in the conference had assured the Billikens would finish on top for the second consecutive year, regardless of their outcome.
However, with SLU fighting for NCAA Tournament position, it could not afford a loss to an opponent outside of the top 100 of the RPI. Or a draw against a team that is among the country’s leaders in ties, especially in road games.
But the Billikens knew St. Joseph’s was not going to make things easy despite an unimpressive record because frustrating opponents is what the Hawks do. Look no further than their four scoreless draws on the road.
The outcome appeared headed in that direction until John Klein scored the only goal on Senior Night to give SLU a 1-0 win.
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“That was special,” Klein said. “Last year was sweet, but this year might be a little sweeter with the rough start at the beginning and to do it with a group of guys who haven’t been together a long time.”
Klein converted a pass from freshman Mads Stistrup Petersen in the 74th minute for his seventh goal of the season and 29th of his career.
SLU will have home field for the Atlantic 10 tournament starting with a Friday night quarterfinal game against Massachusetts.
Coach Kevin Kalish said he told the team before the game that the Billikens had already wrapped up first place after a couple of players had already been sneaking a look at other results.
“I think psychologically it’s a little bit of a trick, but we’re fighting for an NCAA at-large berth,” Kalish said. “We want to keep our RPI in the 20s, and in my opinion we’ll be an at-large if we don’t win the conference tournament. So, I feel good where we’re sitting. We wanted to go for the win on our home field.”
The first season with no overtime in college soccer had a major impact in the A-10, where draws were commonplace except for at SLU (10-4-1 overall, 6-1-1 in the A-10), which has just one.
The Hawks nearly tied the game in the 84th minute, but a shot that got past SLU goalkeeper Carlos Tofern was cleared off the goal line by Grady Easton and then cleared out by Alberto Suarez.
St. Joseph’s had a backline the school’s basketball team would envy with 6-foot-7 goalkeeper Luis Ludosan, 6-7 defender Alex Hartmann and fellow backliners 6-3 Garrett Lyons and 6-2 Kenyatta Collins.
“They’re a super tough team to break down with a lot of physical guys,” Klein said. “They’re like a basketball team. We knew it would be tough, but that says a lot about our persistence to find that goal. We had a lot of chances and half chances and felt it we put enough pressure on, one was going to fall.”
Although SLU only outshot St. Joseph’s 6-5 in the first half, when both teams put two shots on goal, the Billikens created more opportunities from close range.
Aside from a flurry of shots from close range that were blocked or saved, Stistrup Petersen came closest to scoring when his free kick from just outside the top of the box curled towards the upper left corner of the goal but was knocked aside by the left hand of Ludosan.
“There’s a transition period for anyone who comes from overseas to a new environment,” Kalish said of Stistrup Petersen, who is from Denmark. “He’s gotten better and better. College is a little different than Denmark, but he’s playing his best soccer right now.”
Klein said that in the first half, when SLU got the ball to the baseline it was cutting it back outside and that St. Joseph’s was anticipating that. He told his teammates at halftime he was going straight to the middle and was able to sneak behind the line for Stistrup Petersen’s pass.
“That’s what a captain does,” Kalish said. “John Klein has helped change this program. I can’t say enough about what he’s done here.”
Stu Durando @studurando on Twitter [email protected]
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