DALTON, Ga. – The Crusaders fell late to #1 Dalton State on the road on Sunday afternoon.
 
The Crusaders were looking to get back to winning ways following Friday's loss but found themselves behind within the opening ten minutes. Kazuma Ishizuka whipped a freekick from wide right of the Crusader goal across the six-yard box. Following a goal mouth scramble, Jip Van Den Essen found the ball at his feet from a yard out and rifled the ball into the net.
 
Carey fought to get their way back into the game and looked to control the game for good parts of the first half. Their best chance came following a Djordje Djukovic cross from the left-hand side that found Kolby Godbolt on the edge of the box. Godbolt unfortunately could only force his first time shot straight at a grateful Nicolas Leite in the Roadrunner net.
 
Dalton looked to frustrate the Crusaders by sitting in following their opening goal, often putting ten, sometimes eleven players behind the ball and hitting Carey on the counterattack. Jack Brown thought he had doubled the Roadrunner lead after a cleared free kick was put back into the box and the ball had found Brown's feet 12 yards out from goal. Henry Hampshaw stormed off his line and spread his limbs to deny Brown and make a spectacular save.
 
Coming out of half time, the Crusaders looked to get back into the game and wasted no time in doing so. Less than two minutes after the restart and Carey were level. Marc Guerrero, realizing Dalton were not set defensively following the award of a freekick on his own edge of the center circle, fired a ball into the corner for Godbolt to run onto. Godbolt retrieved the long ball, got his head up, and spotted the run of Djukovic. Djukovic made the run across goal for the Godbolt cross and tapped in first time at the near post.
 
The next 35 minutes were spent cautiously by both teams. Neither team wanted to risk losing the game in pursuit of winning it. Carey created two of the better chances. First, Carey had a couple of back-to-back corners that came to nothing, and then in the 84^th minute, had a freekick from 30 yards out that Milos Stajkovic could only hit into the wall before dispatching the rebound just wide.
 
On the 85^th minute mark, it would be the Roadrunners that would ultimately find the game winner. Ishizuka found the ball at his feet following a cross into the box and attempted to beat Luka Brandic. Brandic brought down Ishizuka and the referee pointed straight to the spot. Leonardo Seixas stepped up and rifled the ball into the net. Hampshaw guessed the right way but Seixas' strike had enough power to beat the Carey keeper.
 
The Crusaders are back in action on Wednesday, October 16th, as they travel to Point. That game set to get underway at 3:30 PM.