CHARLOTTE, N.C.- A late goal by St. Andrews' freshman Daniel Montero (Raleigh, N.C.) lifted the Knights over Queens by a score of 2-1 in Conference Carolinas competition on Wednesday afternoon.
The Knights snapped a five-game losing streak improving to 4-9-0 overall and 2-6-0 in the conference. The Royals maintain 5-7-1 overall and 2-6-1 league ledgers after dropping their third straight contest.
Queens knotted the score at 1-1 with its lone goal in the 36th minute on a series of nice passes. Junior Michael Lum (Trussville, Ala., Hewitt Trussville ) started the sequence by spreading out the Knights defense with a volley from right sideline to the left flank and the foot of sophomore Matthew Gwilt (Mooresville, N.C, Lake Norman ), who then crossed the ball into the middle of the box. Sophomore Michael Cilek (Roanoke, Va., Cave Spring ) finished off the play by depositing the ball into the back of the net with a 10-yard shot.
Junior Marbin Escobar (Middleburg, Fla.) started the scoring with an opportunistic goal in the 27th minute to give the Knights a 1-nil lead. St. Andrews was awarded a direct kick at the top of the 18-yard box and Escobar saw an opening to the left side of the goal as Queens tried to set up its wall and quickly took a precise shot through the gap for the opening marker.
SAPC had a 21-15 shot edge and took 75-percent of the games corner kicks (9-3).
Escobar had a game-high five shots.
Knights' junior goalkeeper William Williams (Denver, Colo.) made six of his seven saves in the first half en route to his fourth victory of the season.
The score remained deadlocked through halftime and majority of the second half. Queens had a couple quality chances to take a lead including a direct kick by freshman Jeremy Chambers (Princeton, W.Va., Princeton Senior) that went off the crossbar in the 53rd minute. Classmate James Alexander (Charlotte, N.C.) had the Royals only shot on goal in the second stanza with a laser after making a 180-degree turn but Williams blocked and squeezed the hard shot to eliminate the threat.
Montero netted the game-winner in the 81st minute by defeating a Royals defender and then taking a shot from within the box that snuck inside the left near post. Montero's third goal of the season was his second game-winner of his rookie season.
Royals' junior goalie Chris Raines (Aurora, Colo.) had a game-high eight saves in the losing effort.
St. Andrews visits Conference Carolinas foe Pfeiffer University (Misenheimer, N.C.) on Saturday at 3 p.m. while Queens travels to Barton College (Wilson, N.C.) at the same time on Saturday.
