ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — Through Chris Kranjc's first two years at Flagler College, his men's soccer teams have had the wheel power in the beginning but couldn't maintain it.
 
That wasn't the case in the Saints' season-opening match versus visiting Francis Marion University on a chilly Monday night at Saints Field. While the pair of Peach Belt Conference teams ended in a 2-2 double-overtime draw, the third-year head coach saw a fight in his Saints until the final whistle.
 
"I was thinking to myself, 'in the last few years, the teams that we've had — we've had quality teams, and we'd go up and give up two goals, and then we wouldn't necessarily claw our way back into the game,' and this team did," Kranjc said. "This is a huge step in the right direction as we build the program. They were just fantastic.
 
"Coming into this game and being down 2-1 and dealing with the adversity that we dealt with, I thought they hung tough, hung together, and found a way to get a result out of the game."
 
The script was written for the end result to mirror those of year's past; however, Flagler (0-0-1, 0-0-1 PBC) decided to re-write it. In the 29th minute, Al Cooper came off the bench and scored their first goal of the year. The ball came via Jared Fuentes' shot which bounced through the goalkeeper's hands and to the feet of Cooper as the sophomore tapped it into the left corner to go up 1-0.
 
It was Cooper's lone shot and one of Flagler's six on goal of 19 total shots.
 
"Yeah, he came off (the bench) and that was the plan all along, to give us a spark," Kranjc said. "He did that and got in the right position to score and he had a couple opportunities to score, as well. He did really well, and I was proud of his effort."
 
The Patriots (0-0-1, 0-0-1) took the next two scores, with one before halftime in Magnus Hoejland's tap and score via Alvaro Zamora and the other at the 72nd minute from the foot of John Castro.
 
In all, Francis Marion had 12 shots (seven on goal) and took 13 cornerkicks compared to the Saints' five. Flagler goalkeeper Jared Marsano had five saves, including a massive save from a set piece outside the box in the second half, while FMU keeper Maximiliano Rocco had four saves.
 
Following the Patriots' go ahead goal, Flagler fired right back and deposited a goal thanks to a free kick from Joran Osland as defender Chris Stokes, who also came off the bench, headed it in to knot the score for good.
 
"I was really pleased with our effort tonight, and I thought the guys really put in a shift and created changes, plus defended well," Kranjc said. "We gave up two goals on two set pieces, so that's something we can build on and fix going forward. We scored on a set piece and through the run of play, so you know we are pretty versatile and balanced when we were going forward.
 
"Through all the adversity tonight and what we've dealt with through the last couple weeks, I couldn't be happier with where we are right now and tying last year's conference champion — that's a step in the right direction."
 
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