Falcons Play to Hard Fought Draw Against Warner 

TEMPLE TERRACE, Fla. – The Florida College Men's Soccer team drew 1-1 with the Warner University Royals in their home opener Tuesday night. 

With the Falcons and Royals both looking to get back in form after tough road losses, this game was set to be a fierce contest. The match concluded with seven yellow cards, three to the Royals and four to the Falcons, and two red cards resulting in both teams playing down a man.  

The first half saw lots of back-and-forth action with 9 shots total between the two teams. Possession was constantly shifting in the first half with neither team pulling too far ahead before their opponents would begin to come back into the match. However, despite the high intensity from both teams, the first 45 minutes ended 0-0. 

While the first half saw no definite action, other than the game's first yellow card, the second half was a completely different story. In the 47th minute Florida College's Yorgen Torres won a free kick roughly 30 yards from goal. Sophomore John Solis stepped up to take the free kick and struck it beautifully into the top corner pulling the Falcons in front 1-0. Determined to not let this game slip from them, the Royals turned up the pressure, and in the 56th minute they got what they were looking for when Chad McAuliff played a splitting through ball just into the box, where his teammate Joseph Street capped off his run by firing a rocket past Falcon keeper Ahiezer Santiago to square the game at 1-1. The rest of this game saw everything from lightning delays to two red cards, but ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw at the end of 90 minutes.  

Solis had this to say after the game, "It was a great game, we definitely deserved the win. We are growing as a team every time we play, and we haven't seen a fraction of our best level. Big thanks to everyone that came out and supported, if it weren't for all our fans, the game would have ended differently" 

The Falcons will play again this weekend, Saturday August 31, against Ave Maria University at 7:30 PM on Qualls Field.