SOCCER (M)

10/10/09 - Royals Let One Get Away Against Sea Lions

Fullerton, CA- On Saturday, the Royals took a 2-1 lead early in the second half but could not hold off Point Loma Nazarene and fell 3-2.  Freshman Edgar Bran scored his 13th goal of the season and assisted on the Royals’ first goal.

The Sea Lions (3-7, 2-3 GSAC) came out ready to play as they took four corner kicks in the first 12 minutes of the match.  The good news for the Royals (5-5-3, 0-4-1 GSAC) was that Point Loma could not convert any of those corners into shots.

However, PLNU made HIU pay for not clearing multiple balls on the left side of the box in the 23rd minute.  Matt Garrett hit a shot from the left wing that found the net and gave the Sea Lions a 1-0 lead.

The Royals tied the score at 1-1 after a Point Loma foul in the 38th minute when Bran found Freshman Matt Howard with the free kick and Howard headed the ball into the net for his second goal of the season.

Less than 30 seconds later, the Royals just missed out on the lead when Sophomore Danilo Pereira just went wide with a shot.

A save by Senior Goalkeeper Matt Fike in the 39th minute kept the game tied at 1-1 going into the break.

Just over a minute in to the second half, Pereira missed another shot wide as he needed his shoe size to be just one size bigger.  Though he could not get enough of the ball to put it in the net, one step later he found himself face to face with the post.  Neither were harmed.

A minute and a half later, the Royals would take the lead.  Junior Anthony Magana took a shot that inadvertently blocked a Sea Lions defender with his hands.  A penalty kick was awarded for the hand ball in the box and Bran converted the kick to give the Royals a 2-1 lead.

The Royals fought off the Sea Lions for the next 23 minutes.  However, in the 71st minute, the Sea Lions tied the score after Jon Fielding played a ball into box from the right side for Francois Furlan who ripped a shot back to the right side of the net.  Diving to his left, Fike put a hand on the ball but could not get enough of it to deflect it out of play.

Following a HIU foul two minutes later, Fielding took the free kick from 25-30 yards that bounced off the post right into the path of Grant Cowles following up the shot and Cowles buried the 3-2 game winner.

The Sea Lions played the final 15 plus minutes with the lead to a tee and pinned the Royals on their end for majority of the remainder of the game.

However, with just seconds remaining, the Royals had one last chance, as Bran, with his back to net,  redirected ball toward the goal that appeared at the very least to be headed for the post but was cleared away by a Sea Lions defender two yards out.

All in all the match appeared to be two equally skilled teams going head to head as evident by Point Loma outshooting Hope International 14-13.  The one area that largely was in favor of the Sea Lions was their 11 to 3 corner kicks on the day.

On Wednesday, the Royals will play their final scheduled night game of the season as they travel just up the road to La Mirada for 7:00 pm kickoff with Biola.

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