St. Louis - Freshman midfielder Will John slotted home the game-winning goal 8:04 into overtime as fifth-ranked Saint Louis defeated South Florida 2-1 tonight in a Conference USA men's soccer match before 5,591 fans at Robert R. Hermann Stadium. The Homecoming crowd was the second largest at Hermann Stadium.

On the winning goal, freshman forward Vedad Ibisevic settled a pass at the top of the penalty area and pushed the ball wide to John. John took two dribbles in and launched a low drive underneath USF keeper Dane Brenner.

"We've been working on that exact play with Vedad and our other forwards for the past two weeks," head coach Dan Donigan said. "Mike Sorber (assistant coach) has been drilling these guys relentlessly, and all that work paid off tonight."

USF almost took a 1-0 lead in the first two minutes of action when a Billiken defender Nick Gannon narrowly missed own goal as his pass back to keeper Jeff Sackamn rolled inches to the left of the SLU goalpost. The Billikens responded with their most dominating half of the season out-shooting the Bulls 12-3.

Ibisevic drilled a long shot in the fifth minute that was denied by USF's Brenner. On the next Billiken possession, SLU had two consecutive shots cleared off the line by USF defenders. The Billikens unleashed nine shots at the USF goal in the first 20 minutes of the half. With under five minutes to play in the half, Ibisevic beat Brenner with a shot to his left but the ball hit squarely off the goalpost and bounced straight back to the USF keeper, who later was helped by another defender's clearance off his own line.

The Bulls tallied first off a long pass in the final minute. Senior midfielder Aaron Paroulek collected a long ball down the the right side and beat the SLU defense to the end line. Freshman midfielder Keeron Benito ran onto a centering pass and launched a hard shot just inside the left post.

The Billikens kept the pressure on early in the second half and finally equalized in the 67th minute. SLU worked hard to earn a corner kick that was taken by John DiRaimondo. He served a ball to the near post, and Ibisevic flicked the ball with a header from six-yards out to tie the game 1-1.

USF's scoring leader Hunter West narrowly missed ending the game in the first minute of overtime when his shot went just over the crossbar. In the 95th minute, DiRaimondo sent in a dangerous pass to the center of the box that found Ibisevic, but his attempt sailed wide. However, the Billikens ended it with John's game winner at 98:04.

"That was our best game of the season, and that first half was without question our best 45 minutes," Donigan said. "It would have been a shame to come away with a lesser result, but that's almost what happened. I think our guys deserved that one."

Saint Louis (9-1-2 overall, 4-1-1 C-USA) out-shot the Bulls 24-7 and had a 10-4 edge on corners. Sackman made one save to pick up his second straight victory while subbing for the injured Martin Hutton. Brenner made six stops for USF (4-5-2, 1-3-1), while his defense made three saves.

The Billikens travel to Cincinnati next Saturday for a 6 p.m. (CT) start against the Bearcats.

#5 SAINT LOUIS 2,  USF 1 (OT)
 USF  44:27 Benito from Paroulek, 15-yards off a counter
 SLU   66:59 Ibisevic from DiRaimondo, six-year header off corner
 SLU  98:04  John from Ibisevice, 10-yards, one-on-one

Shots: SLU - 24, USF - 7 Corners: SLU - 10, USF - 4 Saves: SLU - 1 (Sackman ), USF - 9 (Brenner-6, Team-3) Fouls: SLU - 17, USF - 19 Att: 5,591