Falcons Rally From Behind in 3-1 Victory

MONTEVALLO, Ala. - The University of Montevallo men's soccer team (8-5-1, 4-3-0 PBC) fell behind early in its final regular season home match of the year against North Georgia College and State University (5-8-0, 1-5-0 PBC) but used strong offensive pressure to turn things around and capture a 3-1 victory. The Falcons were led by junior Nathaniel Foster (Brampton, Ontario/Humberview Secondary School) who scored a pair of late goals including the game winner in the 81^st minute of play. The match also marked Senior Night for three Falcons including Cruyff Dos Remedios (Mississauga, Ontario/Cardinal Newman), Lucas Manzoli (Sao Paulo, Brazil/Colegio Friburgo) and Chris Stanfield (Prattville, Ala./Prattville).

The Falcons fell behind quickly as the Saints used a blast from 25 yards out to take a quick 1-0 lead just three minutes into the game. The Falcons then used steady offensive pressure to work their way back into the match. The Falcons fired off 10 shots in the first half with just two on goal but the pressure paid off in the 24^th minute as Alex Ghoja (Elkmont, Ala./Bob Jones) headed in a cross from Nathan Archard (Huntsville, Ala./Grissom). Junior Milan Pualic (Subotica, Serbia/Srednja Ekonosmka Skola School) set up Archard with a nice pass to receive an assist on the play.

The Falcons and Saints continued to battle the rest of the first half with the Falcons having much of the advantage. The half ended 1-1 with the Falcons out-shooting the Saints 10-3.

The second half continued the theme of the Falcons pressuring the ball and once again it paid off late in the half as Foster scored a pair of goals in the span of eight minutes.

The first came at the 80:04 mark as Foster collected a throw in from Austin McIntosh (Sheffield, England/All Saint Catholic) and turned and fired a point blank shot into the net to put the Falcons ahead 2-1.

He struck again in a very similar fashion just eight minutes later as sophomore Matt Maughn (Toronto, Ontario/St. Marcellinus) fed him the ball in the box where he once again spun around the defender and fired it past the keeper.

The Falcons out-shot the Saints in the second half 8-3 to take a overall shot advantage of 18-6.

Falcon goalkeeper Robert Mueller (Kileen, Texas/Kileen) picked up the win playing the entire 90 minutes while making one save.

Ghoja and Foster led the team in shots with five each while Pualic chipped in four.

The Falcons return to action Saturday, Oct. 24 at 3:00 p.m. as they travel to Lander University for their final Peach Belt Conference match of the year.