NEWBERRY - Wolves' senior Brady Francis scored an outstanding goal for Newberry in the second half, but saw his side come up short as the Wolves fell 2-1 to the Queens Royals at the Smith Road Complex.

In the first meeting between the Wolves (1-8-1, 1-3-1 SAC) and Royals (8-1, 5-0 SAC) on the soccer pitch since Queens joined the South Atlantic Conference, Newberry pushed the top team in the standings into an even match for much of the opening period.

Queens caught a break in the 38th minute as Ryan King sent a ball through the 18-yard box to the left foot of Austin Huddy, who placed his shot inside the near post to put the Royals up 1-0.

The second half started with Queens continuing to enjoy the momentum as the Royals fired six shots in the opening 15 minutes of the period. Queens' fifth shot of the period turned into a corner kick opportunity for the Royals.

With the ball at his feet, Gersi Cilingiri found the head of Erick Suarez who scored his conference leading eighth goal of the season.

Trailing 2-0 in the 60th minute, Newberry continued to battle the visiting Royals as the Wolves attacked the goal with shots as multiple Wolves registered shots over the next few minutes.

In the 81st minute the Wolves unlocked the Queens defense as freshman Jalin Butler (Columbia, S.C.) found the feet of Francis (Aiken, S.C.). From outside the 18-yard box, Francis found enough space to blast a hard curling shot to the far post and netting the senior his second goal of the season.

Newberry continued to attack as the Wolves looked to fight for points in the standings. It appeared Newberry was set to head to overtime with Queens as junior Nick Rembowski (Mooresville, N.C.) saw his shot ricochet off the crossbar. The resulting punt from the Queens keeper looked to have been turned away and into a goal for Ferreira, but the potential game tying goal was waved off by the officials.

The Wolves saw one final opportunity in the 90th minute as senior Jay Barajas (Atlanta, Ga.) saw his header sail wide of the goal.

Francis and sophomore Anthony Lucido (Lakeland, Fla.) led Newberry with two shots each, while senior goalkeeper Patrick Sweatt (Indian Land, S.C.) recorded five saves in the match.

Newberry is set to hit the road for its next three matches, beginning with a Wednesday afternoon duel with the Anderson Trojans at 4:30 p.m.