HUNTSVILLE – A  return to the home pitch, a change at head coach and playing with a man advantage for a large part of the match wasn’t enough to propel the Huntsville City Football Club to its first win of the season Saturday night.

However, the Boys in Blue were able to claim a 1-1 draw against Crown Legacy FC as a crowd of 4,400 looked on at Wicks Family Field at Joe Davis Stadium in MLS NEXT Pro action. Huntsville City FC (HCFC), which played to draws in its first two matches this season before losing two straight including last week on the road, failed to earn the extra point awarded when Crown Legacy prevailed 5-4 in the penalty kick shootout.

Crown Legacy went down to 10 men in the 36th minute after Cameron Duke received his second yellow card in the span of two minutes. The Boys in Blue went ahead 1-0 in the 69th minute when Brennan Creek headed home Ollie Wright’s cross.

Crown Legacy scored the equalizer in the 79th minute on an Aron John header. 

“We’ve only been working together two, three days, but we, if it wasn’t for (their) keeper, I think we could’ve gotten a couple of goals,’’ said interim head coach Christophe Berra, who replaced Jack Collison last Tuesday. “So there’s a lot of really positive signs there. Yes, disappointed we lost a lead, but sometimes playing against 10 men can be difficult.

“We still created charges, which for me is a massive positive. So yes, we’d like, I would love to win and we’re trying to know that mentality. It’s a lot of positive steps forward, defensively. The team seemed to take a big step forward tonight.’’

Crown Legacy (0-1-3-3), from Charlotte, is also winless and in eighth place in the Western Conference. HCFC (0-2-2-3) is 12th.

Chattanooga visits HCFC at 7 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are available here.