BELMONT, N.C.- The Queens Royals fell this evening on the road as crosstown-rival Belmont Abbey scored five straight goals and Queens was unable to manufacture the guile to craft a comeback. The 13-8 loss to the No. 16 Crusaders drops the 14th-ranked Royals' record to 1-2.
A trio of Royals finished with two points highlighted by senior captain
Kealan Pilon (1G, 1A) in his return from injury.
Adam Barry finished with two goals and Ty Ewen had a goal and an assist on the night. Solo goals from
Austin Leonard, Jake Bowen,
Quinn Tallant, and
Zach Terry capped Queens' offensive output.
This meeting between perennial top-10 rivals didn't have the pace we have become used to in recent years as both teams failed to score in the game's opening five minutes. Barry broke the deadlock with frozen rope beating the keeper five-hole. The Royals' offense would fall silent for over 10 minutes as the team struggled to find quality looks. Jake Bowen got Queens back on the board when he beat his defender topside and finished with a fluid on the run shot. At the end of one, the Royals found themselves even with Belmont Abbey at two apiece.
The second quarter would see Queens find it hard to match the output of the Crusaders as everything seemed to be falling Belmont Abbey's way. The Royals conceded two early goals that they would never be able to fully bounce back from. Barry notched his second goal of the game on a great look from Ewen, but Belmont answered in under a minute to regain the two-goal advantage. With under three to go in the half, Terry propelled himself forward through multiple defenders to bring Queens within one. However, the Crusaders answered with three goals in less than two minutes to take an 8-4 lead into halftime.
The start of the second half was much like the beginning of the contest seeing both sides put pressure on the other but neither team could cash in on their opportunities. Belmont Abbey was able to find their scoring touch first after another nearly 10-minute drought producing two goals in under two minutes. Tallant was able to cap off a string of precision passes on a tight angle finish with 18 seconds left in the quarter. At the end of three, the score was 10-5.
The Royals were unable to score first in the final frame making their job that much tougher. A brilliant two-minute span just after the nine-minute mark saw Queens cut the lead to four with seven minutes to play. Unfortunately, the Royals were unable to capitalize on this momentum as the Crusaders answered in a staggering 12 seconds. The teams then traded goals in the final five minutes to complete the scoring.
The team stats were extremely similar showing the two sides were evenly matched. The Royals outshot the Crusaders 39 to 36. Both sides had a hard time maintaining possession as Queens committed 20 turnovers and Belmont Abbey had 16. Queens cleared the ball with consistency finishing with an 80 percent success rate (16-20) but did little to deter the Crusaders who finished with a 94 percent success rate (15-16). Belmont Abbey won the ground war as they collected 31 ground balls compared to Queens' 23. Both teams came away with 12 faceoff wins.
The Royals are back in action Wednesday, March 10 as they host South Atlantic Conference rival Wingate. The game is set for a 7 p.m. start.
