The Florida Gulf Coast University men's soccer team dropped a crucial 3-2 decision at Queens University of Charlotte Saturday in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Shoki Yoshida had his best game of the season as he delivered both of the Eagles' goals.
"Credit to Queens, they never gave up, even down two. They stayed true to their identity and we gave them the opportunity to get back into the game," said FGCU head coach
Jesse Cormier. "Tough lessons these past few weeks but it can make us better in the future."
The Royals (5-9-2, 3-4 ASUN) dominated with 17 shots and nine on goal compared to the Eagles (3-7-5, 2-2-3 ASUN) 11 shots with four on goal. In the first half, the Eagles wasted no time as
Luis Lugo and
Luke Barforosh attempted to put the Eagles on the board but it did not connect.
Yoshida would get the job done at 17:21 as he took a sneaky pass from
Gustavo Ferrari before burying the ball in the bottom left side of the net for a 1-0 advantage.
The Royals got one shot away before Yoshida would strike again, this time with an assist from
Zeke Oswald. The Japan native did not give the Queens goalkeeper a chance to save the powerful shot as the Eagles increased the lead to 2-0.
For the remainder of the half, the Green & Blue took two shots to Queens' one and the Eagles entered the locker room up by two goals.
In the second half, Queens saw an opportunity and Giuliani Lucca took a shot himself at 58:58 and placed Queens back in striking distance, being down just one goal. The Royals kept applying pressure and once again found the back of the net as Lucca sent a pass to Samuel Idinge, who tied the game 2-2 at 72:04.
The Royals continued to step it up, firing three shots while the Eagle had none and fell in foul trouble as
Anthony Rowan received his second yellow card at 79:26 and was ejected from the game. The Eagles kept holding on defensively in hopes of ending the game with one point, but Queens scored the game winning goal in the waning moments.
The loss for FGCU, coupled with Bellarmine's 3-2 win against Stetson, means the Eagles will miss out on the ASUN Championship by virtue of tiebreakers.
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