JBU gives up early lead, defeated on opening night

■ The Golden Eagles scored first but lost 2-1.

Much to the delight of a big opening night crowd at Alumni Field, John Brown’s men scored an early goal to take a 1-0 lead in its season opener.

But the lead would be shortlived for the Golden Eagles in head coach Brenton Benware’s JBU debut.

Mobile (Ala.) scored a pair of goals to close the first half, and that would be enough to lift the Rams to a 2-1 victory over the Golden Eagles.

“We shut tempo off and adjusted to their game plan,” Benware

said. “We bit some of the traps that they had set, and it was effective for them.”

John Brown got on the board with 33:02 left in the first half when junior Kelvin Omondi, the 2016 Sooner Athletic Conference player of the year, drove into the six-yard box, and dribbled around the keeper, Guilherme Altoe, to score the first goal of the season. The assist went to JBU junior Ryan Williams.

But even with the early goal, the Golden Eagles were being lured into a false sense of security, according to their first-year head coach.

“Early on, they essentially made us play from the back and made us make some mistakes,” Benware said. “We started to feel like we had more time on the ball, and we played into some of their traps and played more direct as opposed to building more out of the back, which that was the game plan. We diverted from that.”

It cost the Golden Eagles with 6:06 left before halftime when Mobile tied the match at 1-1.

Paul Ledsham laid off the ball to Newton Henry, who blasted a rocket from 18 yards out for a Rams goal to tie the game.

With 2:21 left before halftime, Mobile scored again to take a 2-1 lead.

Matthew McArthur played a long ball through JBU’s back line and found Casey Culver, who found himself one on one with JBU goalkeeper Adam Holt.

Culver scored what would be the game-winner.

Both teams finished with 12 shots apiece, but JBU outshot the Rams 7-3 in the second half.

Altoe finished with four saves, but he had some help from the goalpost on a shot from Steve Teshima late in the second half.

JBU returns to action at 3 p.m. Thursday at Cumberland (Tenn.).

“Six days — a little break,” Benware said. “A little time to work this out and get this right.”

Photo courtesy of JBU Sports Information Mobile (Ala.) goalkeeper Guilherme Altoe makes a stop on Kelvin Omondi’s shot, but Omondi snared the rebound and scored to give JBU a 1-0 lead Friday night in its season-opener. Mobile scored a pair of goals to end the second half and defeated the...