The Royals Men’s Soccer team (1-8-6, 0-4-4) dropped a close game against its inner city rival, Bridgewater (9-3-3, 5-2-1), 1-0. On a cold and windy Wednesday night, with 217 in attendance for Rowdy Royals night in, the Royals celebrated six seniors; David Smith, Mason DenBesten, Dallas Organek, Baelin Watson, Ethan McGee, and Ahmad Zaatar. Three minutes into the game, Logan Darrow picked up an early yellow card. This paved the way early for what ended up being a highly competitive and chippy matchup between the two teams. The officials were blowing the whistle quite often, and according to emuathletics.com, both teams combined for 19 fouls. Bridgewater had 12, and the Royals had 7.
The Royals held possession of the ball early and often, and took two early shots within the first fifteen minutes, but were unable to score off of those shots. Scoring has been hard to come by for this Royals team under first year head coach Justin Carey. The Royals are currently 1-8-6, averaging .93 goals per game, while allowing 1.7 goals per game. This team, despite the offense struggles, have been in multiple close games, as shown by their eight ties, providing some hope as the Royals close out their season.
The Royals picked up a foul on the top of the left side of the box 18 minutes into the game. After some back and forth from a Royals player and Eagles player, the Eagles lined up for a close free kick. The kick, taken by Trevon Phillips, who would suffer an injury late in the game, bounced off of the right post and ricocheted onto the foot of Cole Dunbar. Dunbar’s shot off of the rebound was sent up into the sky, as the Royals escaped two close scares close to goal.
The half ended scoreless, with the Royals still maintaining a majority of the possession. This quickly changed at the start of the second half. The Eagles came out in dominant fashion, holding onto the ball for long periods of time, and eliminating any Royals possession before the Royals could enter their third of the field. The Royals still managed to get a couple of shots off, but neither found their way in goal. Soon after, Alex Martinez received a pass from Eric Ramirez that would bounce off the post and bounce out. The refs believed the ball had crossed the goal line, giving the Eagles a 1-0 lead. The Royals sideline believed the officials had missed a handball in the moments leading up to the goal, and were very vocal about that. The Rowdy Royals faithful joined in, also believing that there was a missed call. The Eagles attempted to drown out the noise by repeatedly whooping. This occurred multiple times over the course of the game.
The Royals had a few more chances during the rest of the game, but could not convert any, and fell 1-0 to the Eagles. The Royals kept it close, playing fast paced offense, and having a few free kick opportunities. Despite the disappointing season, the Royals have a lot to look forward to next season.
