After falling behind 4-0 in today's game against the Warner University Royals, our Eagles Soccer team staged a frantic comeback attempt behind goals by Pedro Lima and Kendall Mullenix, but they were ultimately unable to overcome their early deficit in a 4-2 loss to the Royals.

The Eagles Soccer team came into today's second regular season game seeking their first win of the season after falling in Thursday's season opening game 2-1 to Webber International University. The team was looking to get off to a fast start against the Royals, a team they had beaten 1-0 during the 2017 campaign.

Just 3 minutes into the opening period, Royals forward James Feehan added the first goal of the game to make it 1-0. After that first goal, the two teams settled down and traded shots over the next 25 minutes. In the 28th minute, the Royals would again find the back off the net to make it 2-0, but they were not done yet. Just minutes later Warner University scored their 3rd goal of the opening period to take a commanding 3-0 lead with just 12 minutes remaining in the 1st half.

Despite the Eagles best efforts throughout the remaining minutes of the half, the team was unable to score and headed into halftime trailing 3-0. Asked after the game about his team's 1st half struggles, Eagles Head Coach Joseph Liwosz responded, "We need to have better communication as a unit and a stronger desire to come out and play to the best of our abilities if we expect to start seeing these results go differently."

In the 2nd half, the Eagles hoped to find some positive momentum, but the Royals quickly dashed those hopes, adding their 4th goal of the match on a header to make it 4-0 with 57 minutes remaining. The Eagles, trailing by four goals and struggling to create good scoring opportunities, dug deep late in today's match.

With 16 minutes remaining in the contest, a yellow card in the box by Royals defender Johan Seminario led to a Penalty Kick opportunity for the Eagles. With Paul Stewart out of the game, the Eagles regular penalty kick taker, Kendall Mullenix stepped up to the penalty mark and easily buried his shot to score the team's first goal of the game.

The Eagles were not done yet. Just 6 minutes later, freshman Pedro Lima added his first goal of his young career off an assist by junior midfielder Hayden Hoffman. The two goals cut into the Royals lead. The team would go on to create several more great scoring opportunities, but they were ultimately unable to convert them. Despite their late efforts, the Eagles fell to Warner University 4-2 in Lake Wales, Florida.

"It was a hot nasty day and our guys played to the last whistle," Coach Liwosz said after the game. "Our guys heart showed up late in the 2nd half, and we started to trust each other which allowed us to start putting the Royals in some positions they didn't want to be in. This ultimately led to several goals and good scoring opportunities."

In the game, the Eagles were again outshot 19-14 (13-6) by the Royals. Goalie Brent Konieczynski added 9 saves after facing 13 shots on goal (4 goals allowed). Pedro Lima and Kendall Mullenix each added their first goals of the season while Hayden Hoffman secured his first assists.

With today's loss, the Eagles dropped to 0-2-0 on the season. They will return to action on Thursday, September 6 when they play their first home game of the 2018 season against LaGrange College. The game will be livestreamed here.