St. Louis University brings its high-flying soccer team to Huskie Stadium on “AYSO Night” Saturday at 7 p.m. in an effort to blemish NIU’s perfect 4-0-0 home record.

The Huskies, coming off a 10-0 shellacking of Chigago State Wednesday, have two players in particular who are eager to play against St. Louis.

Junior co-captain Jim Pisani prepped with four of the current Billikens at Rosary High School in St. Louis.

“We had eight or nine guys who went to Division I schools,” the midfielder said. “Our high school team was ranked No. 1 all year long from the preseason, but we wound up losing to a team we had beaten twice during the year.”

Among Pisani’s former teammates is St. Louis’ Steve Eise who is tied for the team lead in points with 11.

Knowing his ex-cohorts’ abilities and having seen St. Louis play before, Pisani expects to face an aggressive Billiken squad Saturday night.

“They’ll be a little like Brooklyn,” Pisani said, referring to the speedy East Coast team NIU defeated in its first regular season game this year. “They’re fast and physical. We’ll need the same type of defensive performance as we had against Brooklyn.”

Brooklyn’s loss to NIU has been its only setback of the season as the team has gone on to post a 10-1-0 record.

Another Huskie with ties to the St. Louis area is junior John O’Keefe, who placed himself seventh on the all-time NIU single game scoring list with eight points against Chicago State.

“A lot of their players I played club ball with,” the Ferguson, Mo., native said. “They’ve got a lot of good techniques. They’re what a good college team looks like.”

NIU coach Willy Roy knows his Huskies will have to play at peak ability to beat the Billikens.

“Now we really have something to look forward to,” Roy said following the Chicago State massacre. “When we play St. Louis, we will have to be at our finest.”

St. Louis brought a 6-3-1 record into a Thursday night match at Illinois State. The Billikens, who were ranked as high as 17th in the nation last week, are ranked third in the Midwest region this week.

Coach Joe Clarke holds a 55-25-12 career record at St. Louis, and his team ranked second in the Midwest at the finish of 1986. The Billikens are 5-0-0 against the Huskies overall.

NIU is 4-6-1 overall this year and 1-2-0 in Big Central Six Conference play.