MONTGOMERY, Ala. - The start of the season felt as ominous as the looming rain just 83 seconds into the match as the Eagles fell behind 1-0 on a corner kick goal by SCAD-Savannah, but Faulkner (1-0) was unshaken as four unanswered goals lifted the hosts to a 4-1 win Wednesday afternoon at Billy D. HIlyer Stadium.
The Bees (0-2) center back Tom Davies flicked a header back post from Caio Lara's service just 1:23 into the match taking an early lead.
Nic Fischer delivered a massive save in the 15th minute as James Holmes had intercepted a pass along the back line and was alone against Fischer with a chance to make it 2-0 but the German keeper pushed it wide right for one of his three saves in the win. Three minutes later, Faulkner responded with its first corner as Felipe Pinerio volleyed in a spilled corner by the keeper from
Gabriel Rokbrand's service to level the score. Less than 3 minutes later, Rokbrand and
Thiago Micki's combination play sprung Micki free on the left side where he crossed to
Gabriel Dias who turned it in for the lead off the keeper parry.
Micki's vision and the team's selfless play led to the eventual match winner. "So when we were working the ball there on the left, I saw the space open in the back," Micki said. "Gabriel [Rokbrand] gave me the ball and I saw the other Gabriel [Diaz] coming inside and I just gave him the ball and hoped for him to get the ball into the net."
In the 54th minute,
Ilan Tabet delivered a fantastic through ball to
Higor Franca who floated the charging keeper and buried the chance. In the 70th minute, Micki was brought down in the box and buried the subsequent penalty to make it 4-1.
Gabriel de Queiroz was proud of the mentality of his team and saw some of the fruits of the preseason efforts paying off. "The thing we worked on this preseason a lot was how to turn around and come back into the game and fix the mistakes in the game." He credits the team for their response to the early gut check. "It's a learning process. Sometimes in coaching, you just have to step back and see how they react and that's what we did. They know what we expect and they fixed things. The captains, the leaders on the field took over and fixed things and they fought back until they got four goals."
The Eagles welcome Freed-Hardeman (1-0) Saturday at 4:30 p.m.
