Royals Take Down Team Challenger FC In Friendly

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Speed Demon Lolo Karpeh was all over the field tonight as the AFC Cleveland Royals put away the visting Team Challenger FC 4-3 in a Friendly at Stan Skozcen Stadium in Independence.

Karpeh scored a goal in the 76th minute to make it 3-1 AFC Cleveland, and then moments later, in the 86th minute, was crucial in setting up a goal for teammate Gabriel Pewu to put the game away at 4-2.  Team Challenger would score one more time in the closing seconds, but it was too litte to late as the AFC Royals took home the 4-3 win.

Because it was a friendly, the Royals did not play most of their regular starters.  Head coach Mike Sesar gave them the night off to rest, as they have an important double dip next week with the Fort Pitt Regiment as the home stretch of the season begins and the AFC Cleveland Royals need to get hot.

Starters to sit out tonight’s game included Mikey Derezic, Brian Potocnik, Vinny Bell, Admir Suljevic, Ben Truax, Declan McGivern, Chris Cvecko, David Jordan, Coletun Long, Ryan Ware and Alex Ivanov.  The only regular starter to start, was Tom Beck.

The rest for those starters will be key, a it will symbolize 12 days of full rest by the time of their next contest Friday Night at home.  They will need the rest if they can make a run at defending their 2016 NPSL Title.

AFC Cleveland kicked off the scoring in the 18th minute when Jon Luca Di Franko found the back of the net.  Di Franko cashed in on a perfectly placed pass by Tom Beck to score the goal past Team Challenger GK, Alex Dudley.

It was a relatively clean game, with no cards handed out, however a penalty in the box in the 44th minute, led to a Tom Beck penalty kick goal to make it 2-0 at the half.

Team Challenger FC would do their best to battle back in the second half with three goals.  Including two by Justin Libertowski and a penalty kick goal in the closing seconds of the game by Chris Brennan.

As mentioned earlier, the next time the Royals will be in action is Friday Night, June 23rd at home, against the Fort Pitt Regiment.  The AFC Cleveland Royals will be looking to improve on their 5-5-1 overall record, but much more importantly, their 2-3 regular season record.