Lake Wales, FL – The Webber International men's soccer team took a quick trip across the lake to play in the first of two matchups with their Sun Conference rivals, the Warner Royals. A rivalry tends to be hard fought, and that could certainly be said for this matchup, as both sides combined for six yellow cards and one red card in 90 minutes of action. The Warriors would prove to be resilient and defiant in their resolve to hold onto an early lead and take the early season series lead from the Royals on a 2-1 victory in Lake Wales on Saturday evening.

The first half of play was a back-and-forth battle between the two sides with the Warriors recording nine shots with four on target compared to the Royals five shots and two on target. Marco De Rosa and Nelu Calcai had the first two chances on net for the Warriors with De Rosa's going wide left and Calcai's being blocked by the defensive line of the Royals. The two squads exchanged shots in the following ten minutes of action with Ben Parkinson, the Warriors keeper, and Gustavo Infante, the Royals keeper, each recording their first save of the evening match. A crucial substitution made by the Warriors coaching staff more than halfway through the first half would pay dividends on the early swing of the match. Sho Furukawa would be brought on for Calcai in the 35th minute, and just five minutes later would be the scorer to give the Warriors the early advantage. Furukawa would put the finishing touches on a pass from Thiago Silva who set him up for the tiebreaking goal in the 40th minute to give the Warriors the 1-0 lead going into halftime.

The second half is where the action and physical play started to dominate this heated longstanding rivalry. The Warriors, looking to take care of business early on in the second half, would earn a corner kick in the 50th minute and Jesus Solarbe would take advantage of this

opportunity and net his first goal of the season to push the Warriors lead to a much more comfortable 2-0. The Warriors and Royals would exchange shots and substitutions through the next 20 minutes, but with 15 minutes remaining is when the firework show would start. The Royals would record the first of six yellow cards in the 77th minute and follow right up with another one in the 78th minute. The Warriors would take a few shots that were blocked, and the Royals would go on the counterattack and take three shots in quick succession that Parkinson would have to save to keep the score at 2-0. The Royals would pick up another yellow card in the 84th minute, before Tyler Keating would be sent off for the Warriors in the 87th minute with a red card awarding the Royals a penalty kick. Filip Mo would put the penalty kick in the back of the net with just under four minutes remaining to make the game only a one goal difference. The Warriors would pick up two yellow cards from Parkinson and Silvia in the closing minutes of the game, but they protected their lead and walked out of Lake Wales with a 2-1 victory to make it a clean sweep of Warriors soccer victories over the rivaled Royals.
After the game, Head Coach Phillip Maestas Bohn was content with his squads performance.

"Happy to get the win and 3 points today in the rivalry game. I thought we showed some promise in the first half and early in the second half. Then things got interesting. We're still a massive work in progress, so we will keep working to get better and enjoy the win."
The Warriors will look to build momentum off their road victory as the SCAD-Savannah Bee's will come into Babson Park on Wednesday afternoon to take on the Warriors at 3 PM on the Warrior Grass Field.

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