QUEENS, N.Y. – Midway through their longest homestand of the season, the St. John’s University men will host to Temple University at Belson Stadium Saturday at 7:30 p.m.

St. John’s enters the weekend on the heels of a scoreless draw with Hofstra University on Tuesday night. Trailing in shots by an 8-1 margin at halftime, the Red Storm regrouped and turned on the afterburners in the second half, outshooting the Pride 17-5 and controlling possession for a majority of the final 45 minutes.

Goalkeeper Andrew Withers continued his standout play, recording his second clean sheet of the seasonw hile lowering his goals-against average to 0.47. Ranked 23rd nationally in GAA, Withers also finds himself inside the top 20 in save percentage, turning away 88.9 percent opponents’ of tries through four games. After Tuesday’s draw, head coach Dr. Dave Masur credited Withers with keeping the Red Storm in the match.

Having only surrendered two goals in the first four games, the Red Storm ranks second in the Big East in goals allowed per game at 0.50. Only Georgetown, who has ceded one goal in four matches, sports a better average. To make this metric even more impressive, the Red Storm has been missing at least one player from its starting back line in each of the last three matches due to injury (including two against Fordham), while senior Jordan Shankle was limited in the season-opener.

Temple comes to Queens with a 1-2-1 record, having most recently losing in extratime to Rider University Sunday, 1-0. The Owls’ lone win came against a Big East opponent, downing Villanova, 1-0, Aug. 29. Temple’s three goals in have come from as many players, as Thibault Candia, Joonas Jokinen and Mark Grasela have found the back of the net once.

Saturday night will mark the first meeting between St. John’s and Temple.

The match will be streamed live on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN App. Jared Lee Smith will handle play-by-play duties, while Sal Rosamilia will provide color commentary.

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.