Babson Park, FL—An early foul in the box led to an Eagles lead in the first couple minutes of today's first regular season matchup, but a late goal by Webber International would lead to an advantage that the team ultimately was unable to overcome.
The Eagles entered their first regular season game with much anticipation for the upcoming season following last year's historic national championship run. After graduating several key seniors last year including All-American's
Taylor Jensen and
Adrian Torres, the team is looking to build another championship contender around a slew of new faces.
The team would get off to a quick start in today's contest against the Webber International University Warriors. Just two minutes and thirty-two seconds into the game, the Eagles would strike. A foul in the box by a Warriors defender would put junior midfielder
Paul Stewart at the penalty marker, a spot he has thrived in over the last couple of seasons. He would calmly bury it to give the Eagles an early 1-0 lead.
"We need Paul [Stewart] to continue to play a leadership role on this team," Head Coach
Joseph Liwosz would say after the contest. "We have a lot of young guys in the midfield and our team needs him to continue to step up!"
Despite the early goal, the team failed to create legitimate scoring opportunities throughout the remainder of the 1st half. The hometown Warriors would go on to outshoot the Eagles 14-4 in the first half of action. Sophomore goalkeeper
Brent Konieczynski would help keep the game close by turning away multiple strong attempts, but in the 33rd minute, the Warriors would knot the game up. After the late goal, the Eagles headed into halftime with the scored tied at 1-1.
Coming out of the half, the Eagles hoped to find their offensive groove, but a defensive battle ensued in the 2nd half of action with both teams holding each other scoreless throughout most of the half. In the 77th minute, a ball played into the box was deflected by goalie
Brent Konieczynski. The ball would land at the foot of Warriors forward MacKinley Burns, who calmly buried into the back of the net to give his team a 2-1 advantage late in the half.
A series of shots toward the end of regulation failed to provide the Eagles with the equalizer they were craving. The Eagles would go on to lose today's match by a score of 2-1. The Warriors outshot the Eagles 23-12 (12-6 SOG) in the contest. Brent Koniecyznski snatched 10 saves while
Paul Stewart scored his first goal of the season.
"We need to continue working to create more scoring opportunities." Coach Liwosz said, "We have a lot of new guys this year who are learning their position. We still have a lot of learning as a team to do!"
The Eagles will be back in action on Saturday, September 1 when they take on NCCAA DI Warner University in Lake Wales, FL.
Saturday's game will be livestreamed and can be seen here. With the loss, the team falls to 0-1-0 on the season.
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