Scoring three unanswered goals is usually enough to earn a win in soccer, but it wasn't enough for the Royals Friday night in Harrisonburg.  EMU nearly climbed out of an early deficit against the ODAC's top team, Roanoke, but their late rally came up one goal short in a 4-3 loss.

The Royals started out on their heels, giving up a goal just one minute into the contest.  The Maroons found holes and loose balls for additional scores in the 17th, 23rd and 31st minutes.

With less than four minutes to go before halftime, Eastern Mennonite started turning the tide.  Freshman David Nester (Bluffton, Ohio/Bluffton) fought through RC's defense and threaded a nice interior cross to Juan Luna (Mount Jackson, Va./Stonewall Jackson) who had an easy punch in for his fourth goal of the season.

The momentum carried into the second.  Luna just missed scoring again in the 53rd, when his shot knocked off the post and then right back to Roanoke's keeper.  He later teamed up with Jonathan Bush (Pottstown, Pa./Owen J. Roberts) on a great give-and-go to find the net in the 70th and cut the deficit to 4-2.  Bush's goal was also his fourth of the season, but more impressively it was the third straight game the midfielder scored.

With more work to do, the Royals kept pushing.  A mere three minutes later, Tyler Brenneman (Goshen, Ind./Bethany Christian) found a loose ball in the box and pounded it home to make it 4-3 with 18 minutes still to play.  It was Brenneman's first career goal.  The men had a couple of corner and three more shots over the final stretch, but Roanoke held onto the lead to remain undefeated in conference play.

EMU was out-shot 12-4 in the first half, but played an even second at 9-9.  Roanoke finished with a 9-7 edge in shots on goal.  Luna had five shot attempts while both he and Jake Lind (Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) put two on target.

Andrew Yoder (Harrisonburg, Va./Eastern Mennonite) made four saves in the loss and Ryan Zerkel (Mount Jackson, Va./Stonewall Jackson) picked up a stop in his 21 minutes of work.

Despite coming up short, the Royals scored three goals on a Roanoke team which had only allowed a total of four tallies in seven previous ODAC games.

Eastern Mennonite settles at 6-8-2 overall and 3-5 in the conference.  They fail to steal a point in the league standings and stand in ninth place, just one point out of eighth.  The men have three matches left to make a move in the ODAC, taking on Shenandoah, Randolph and Bridgewater.  The Hornets are up first, coming to Harrisonburg next Wednesday night at 7:00pm.

Coach Roger Mast said his men showed a lot of heart in coming back from the early hole: