The Saint Louis University men’s soccer team put together their first consecutive wins on Friday and ran their streak to three after defeating St. Joseph’s University on Sunday afternoon. Both wins came in SLU’s first Atlantic 10 competitions.
The Billikens started their two-game weekend set by dropping the Temple Owls (2-8-0, 0-1-0 A-10) on Friday night by a score of 2-1.
Despite the Billikens’ dominance of the possession throughout the game, the Owls managed a goal in the 27th minute.
Temple midfielder Ryan Heins made a run down the left side of the field and took possession of a cross-field pass from forward Tony Donatelli.
Heins launched a shot into the SLU net from 15 yards out.
SLU capitalized immediately on a Temple mistake-the Bills were awarded a penalty kick in the 29th minute because of an Owls hand ball.
Billiken midfielder John DiRaimondo blasted the penalty kick into the net over goalkeeper Tony Pratico.
Although neither goalkeeper faced many serious challenges, both teams were slowed by a 16-minute power outage that interrupted the second half at the 70-minute mark.
The teams were playing evenly before the lights went out, but the Bills came out of the locker room playing hard and dominated the closing third of the game, a stretch that included another DiRaimondo goal.
DiRaimondo netted the game winner on a cross from midfielder Chad Hagerty. Hagerty received the ball from defender Mo Benne, carried it toward the goal line on the left side of the field and sent a cross through the Temple penalty area.
Forward Dado Hamzagic flicked the ball through traffic to DiRaimondo, who one-timed it into an open net from 12 yards out.
“Chad [Hagerty] played a great ball through, and I was wide open,” DiRaimondo said. “I just tapped it into an open net.”
The tally came in the 78th minute.
The Bills followed up their win against Temple with an even stronger showing against the Hawks of St. Joe’s (1-7-1, 0-2-0 A-10).
The Bills only waited nine minutes to open the scoring, which yielded eight Billiken goals.
Forward Larry Geraghty put his first of three goals in the net off a feed from midfielder Kyle Patterson.
Patterson carried the ball along the right flank and around a St. Joe’s defender before serving it through the middle to Geraghty, who headed the ball into the back of the net. Geraghty’s shot came from eight yards out and only opened the floodgates.
DiRaimondo served up Geraghty’s second goal from a corner kick just 10 minutes later.
Once again, Geraghty won the ball out of the air and scored on a header-this time from 12 yards out.
Next to score was midfielder Alex Matteson.
Matteson ripped a shot into the goal from 20 yards out, with assists going to DiRaimondo and Hamzagic.
DiRaimondo’s production continued when he scored in his second consecutive game off a free kick just outside the St. Joe’s penalty area.
DiRaimondo was tripped up as he moved the ball toward the net, but he set up quickly to score SLU’s fourth goal in the 26th minute.
Midfielder Andrew Moses scored his first career goal off a Danny Wynn cross.
Moses’ goal came in the 31st minute and closed the SLU scoring in the first half.
The barrage of goals continued early in the second half, and Geraghty was able to finish his hat trick in the 48th minute.
He netted the goal on a six-yard shot, with assists going to Hamzagic and DiRaimondo.
DiRaimondo’s weekend production ended when he received a pass from Benne and chipped the ball over the head of goalkeeper Trevor Lyman.
The goal was DiRaimondo’s third of the weekend and was coupled with his three assists.
Andrew Reeder closed the scoring with a goal coming off a rebound from six yards out.
Forward Eddie Parker’s shot was saved, and Reeder cleaned up, sending the rebound into the back of the net. The goal was Reeder’s first career tally.
“It was nice to get Larry [Geraghty], Dado [Hamzagic] and Kyle [Patterson] on the field at the same time,” coach Dan Donigan said. “It was a game that you sit back and enjoy watching. We kept the pedal down and kept playing.”
The Bills (5-4-1, 2-0-0 A-10) continue their six-game home stretch with matches against Rhode Island at 7 p.m. on Friday and Massachusetts at 1 p.m. on Sunday. Both matches are A-10 matches and are the last Billiken home matches until the A-10 tournament in November.
