Box Score The Bruins home opener was spoiled by the St. Andrews University Knights on Thursday night as the team stormed away from Alumni Stadium with a 4-1 win over Bob Jones University.
"We gave the ball away a lot more than we needed to," Coach Jesse McCormick said. "We really want to keep the ball and move the ball and get into more of a rhythm on offense and we didn't do that tonight."
Matt Moore scored the lone goal for the Bruins in
the 4-1 loss to St. Andrews UniversityThe Bruins and Knights were delayed in their start due to a lightning storm during the women's match. As both teams took the pitch for the game, fans could tell these two teams were anxious to play as both came out strong in the opening minutes.
It was the Knights who would strike first as one minute into the match, Bruins goalie Andrew Kester bobbled a ball and a centering pass found the foot of Manuel Escalera to give the Knights a 1-0 early lead. The Knights got another goal a few minutes later as Escalera was on the receiving end of a Bruins defensive lapse again as SAU went up 2-0. From there, the Bruins began to fight back and began to work the ball into the attacking third for opportunities to score. Matt Moore had a shot sail just wide for the Bruins, and Ryan McCarty nearly put the Bruins on the board with a beautiful bending free kick that was tipped wide.
In the 34th minute, the Bruins had another defensive lapse as a Knights corner kick was re-directed by a Bruins defender into the back of the net for an own goal to give St. Andrews University a 3-0 lead. Starting keeper Andrew Kester was injured on the play and did not return the remainder of the match.
Refusing to quit, the Bruins continued to work the ball into position to score. They eventually found the back of the net as Stephen Grider threaded a pass through to
Matt Moore who finished the play to make it 3-1. The Bruins tried for another to close the gap, but the halftime buzzer sounded to keep the score 3-1.
As both teams came out in the second half, the Bruins looked to be the aggressor as they quickly moved into position to score. In the 49th minute of play, the Knights used a great series of combination play to free Julio Rico on a breakaway for a goal to give SAU a 4-1 lead.
The Bruins continued to battle and were able to generate great looks on frame as the team outshot the Knights 15-13 in this match. Knights keeper Leandro Custodio played a stellar match for SAU as he turned away shot after shot from the Bruins. As the final buzzer sounded, the Bruins had played a hard-fought match but came up short in a 4-1 loss at home.
"We competed with this team well tonight so there are a lot of positive things to take away from tonight," Coach McCormick said. "Obviously with the score there are things we need to do a better job of."
Matt Moore scored his third goal of the season, but was injured in the 2nd half and did not finish the game. Coach McCormick said the injury was not serious and he expected Moore to be on the field next game. With the loss, the team falls to 2-2 on the season. Next up, the Bruins will host Toccoa Falls College on Tuesday night at 7 p.m.
