AVE MARIA, Fla. — The Ave Maria University men's soccer team lost a heartbreaker to the Warner Royals Saturday night at Gyrene Field, 2-1. AMU played their best conference game to date, but a late goal from Warner gave them the victory.
Both teams were kept off the scoreboard in the first half, but there were a lot of positives for Ave Maria. For the first time in a SUN Conference match this season, the Gyrenes outshot their opponent in the opening 45 minutes. At the break, the Gyrenes had six shots to the Royals' four. AMU also had more corner kicks and less fouls than Warner. It really felt like Ave Maria had control of the momentum and the game.
In the opening moments of the second half, Ave Maria kept the momentum up, but over time, the Royals began to wear them down. Warner started creating more scoring opportunities and making the Gyrene defense sweat. Finally, in the 71st minute, Warner broke through and opened the scoring for the game. Hector Revelo was unguarded when he received a pass from Vlad Anderson and shot the ball past Rhys Lawlor and into the back of the net.
Disappointed but not discouraged, Ave Maria began to press harder and create more scoring opportunities for themselves. It paid off in the 84th minute when Diego Heredia received a beautiful feed from Adrian De La Rosa and tied the game at 1. It was Heredia's second goal of the season and the first goal for the Gyrenes since October 5. De La Rosa also got his first point of the season with the assist.
Unfortunately, the good feelings didn't last long for the Gyrenes. Just 75 seconds later, Warner regained their lead off a goal from Vlad Anderson assisted by Jesus Peralta. With just five minutes left to play, AMU pressed a couple more times to try and create scoring opportunities, but the Royals defense snuffed out all of those chances, securing their 2-1 win.
Despite the loss, AMU played a very good game and even seemed to be the better team in the first half. However, with the loss, the Gyrenes fall to 4-7 overall and 0-5 in conference play. Ave Maria's next game is Tuesday, October 18, when they will travel to Thomasville, Georgia, to take on the Thomas Night Hawks. This is a makeup game that was originally scheduled for October 1 but got postponed due to Hurricane Ian.
