NEWBERRY - The Newberry College men's soccer team fell short in its home opener against Queens University, dropping a 4-1 decision to the Royals here Friday afternoon.

Newberry (0-1-0) fell behind early after a quick unassisted goal by the Royals' Yannick Fishbach found the back of the net in the 19th minute.

Wolves senior forward Nathan Arroyo (Atlanta, Ga.) then knocked in his first goal of the year, a game tying shot, early in the second half to knot things up in the 68th minute, putting the Wolves back in contention.

Queens (1-0-0) responded shortly thereafter with a Bryan White breakaway goal that snuck past Newberry goalie Joel Johnson (Sangre Grande, Trinidad and Tobago) to give the Royals the lead for good.

“We're still trying to pull things together properly,” said Newberry head coach Sam Okpodu. “We still have some disjointing in the midfield and in the backfield as well but we're coming together.”

Queens went on to add two more goals, one in the 74th minute by Gersi Cilingiri and the last in the 84th minute by Joshua Dowd to put the match away.

“Nobody wants to lose but if you are, it's better to get it out of the way early before conference games start,” added Okpodu. “Hopefully we can build on this and win in the conference and beyond to set ourselves up well in the region and get a bid into the NCAA tournament.”

Arroyo led the Wolves with his four shots including one on goal while teammate Justin Blomdahl took three shots and two on target.

Johnson blocked nine shots on goal taken by the Royals, two more saves than the seven of Royal goalie Giancarlo Aristondo.

“It was the first game of the year so we still have a lot we want to work on,” said Okpodu. “It's obviously not a good result, but we have a talented group of kids and good things are going to happen down the stretch.”

Newberry will be back in action Wednesday, Sept. 8, as they travel to Montevallo, Ala., to take on the Montevallo University Falcons.