NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. – Senior John Imbimbo provided the only stroke of offense for the Franciscan men's soccer team as the Barons fell to Westminster, 4-1, Saturday afternoon.

The Barons sit at 1-1 on the season after their opening weekend, while Westminster improves to 1-0-1 on the year.

Imbimbo's lone tally came late in the second half as the game got a little more aggressive. Sophomore Leo Herrmann beat two defenders before getting tripped up in the box by another. Head coach Ward Rogers turned to his most accurate penalty kicker in Imbimbo. The PK cut the Westminster lead to 4-1 in the 80th minute, but the early goals proved to be too much to overcome.

"We had a late night game the night before and Westminster's was rained out, so they were playing after a night off and we were coming off of a late game with a shorter bench," remarked Rogers. "A lot of guys were playing out of position which they weren't used to.  I was pleased with the effort, but we need to be working for the result."

Rogers continued, "We are too good to fall back on excuses. This type of game really teaches you about whom you are as a team and it's good to get a game like this early in the season."

Westminster took an early lead with an unassisted goal in the first half. After sophomore Thomas Dosedel made a save, the ball deflected off a defender back to the Titans' Cody Postupac. Franciscan was awarded four corner kicks over the remaining 10 minutes but could not convert and the score remained 1-0 in favor of the Titans at the break.

Just 46 seconds into the second half, Westminster pushed its lead to 2-0 off a goal from Zach Walters. Westminster added its third tally of the game on an own goal by FUS to take a 3-0 lead just under 10 minutes into the second half.

"We just had trouble getting any kind of consistency on our possessions which led to a couple unfortunate goals for Westminster," Rogers said.

Despite being out of his normal position, freshman Joe Duran had another strong outing for the Barons.

"Joe was asked to play in a role he was not used to and stepped up to the challenge," Rogers explained. "We should have four to five players back Monday which will help keep the defenders in their normal position and help the midfielders in the center of the field."

Herrmann finished the game with three shots while Duran places two balls on net for the Barons. Dosedel finished the game with eight save for the Barons. Westminster out-shot the Barons 24-6 and held a 9-4 advantage in corner kicks.

After a few days rest, the Barons return to the pitch to take on Hiram on Tuesday, September 8. The game is slated to kick off at 7:30 pm in Hiram, Ohio.