WILKES-BARRE, PA (August 31, 2019) --- The King's College men's soccer team dropped a heartbreaking overtime decision to the University of Scranton 2-1 on Saturday afternoon in the season opener at McCarthy Stadium.

The Royals scored just 2:03 into the extra session to spoil what otherwise was a good showing for the Monarchs in their first match of the year. King's had out shot Scranton 12-9 in the match including 5-4 on goal and had possession of the ball for 54% of the time.

Neither team was able to gain any advantage in the early going with Scranton just taking one shot that went wide left in the first five minutes. The Monarchs earned two corner kicks in the seventh minute but each time the Royal defense was able to keep the ball away from goal. The Monarch caught a huge break early in the 14th minute when Alastair Dinnan was fouled inside the box setting up a penalty kick. Senior August Axtman continued his impressive run of consecutive PKs by scoring his 16th career goal and 11th penalty kick goal on 12 attempts.

The Royals struck back in the 21st minute when a long free kick bounced off a Monarch head towards Bryce Schiltz on the left wing. Schiltz composed himself and then snuck the ball past Connor McKeown and into the bottom left of the net to even the score at 1. The Monarchs fought hard to get the lead back for the remainder of the half but attempts by Pat Holton and Dylan Ramage were saved by US keeper Jake Hodlofski.

Early in the second half the Royals looked like they were poised to take the lead when Michael Donnelly drew a foul in the box for a penalty kick. However, McKeown stepped up to deny Donnelly with a huge save on the PK. Both teams locked in on defense as a very high percentage of the match was played in the midfield.

King's had a god look at goal right before time expired in the half but a header by Fabio Massa was cleanly grabbed by Hodlofski in goal. In the extra session Christian Arcos gave the visitors the victory 2:03 into the period when he dribbled around a couple Monarch defenders and rocketed a shot from the left side of the box that deflected off McKeown's outstretched arms and found its way into the bottom right of the goal.

The Monarchs dominated field position for most of the match spending 59% of the time they possessed the ball in their attacking half of the field while holding Scranton to just 33% of time with possession in the Royals attacking half. King's took five corner kicks while defending just three.

The Monarchs will look to rebound from the tough loss next weekend with a pair of games in central Pennsylvania. On Friday night they will be in Altoona to face Penn State Altoona at 6:30 p.m. in Spring Run Stadium. On Saturday afternoon they will have their annual meeting with Juniata College in Huntingdon. Kickoff in scheduled for 2 p.m. at Gibbel Stadium.