The 2018-2019 Men’s Soccer season came to an end on November 2nd, 2018. The Laker season ended with a gut check punch from one of their toughest opponents this season, No. 7 Lander (14-1-2, 6-1-0 PBC). The Lakers fell 2-0 to the Bearcats in the 2018-19 Peach belt Conference Tournament.
The game was a rematch of their October 24th Game where Lander tool a 4-0 victory over Clayton. Both teams were familiar with the other and knew what needed be done to bring in the win.
The first goal came at the 14th minute mark from Lander’s senior midfielder Oliver Brock who attained a free kick which gave Lander the lead. The game went scoreless for about 43 minutes until the second goal came about when Junior Defender George Knight got an assist from Oliver in the 57th minute. With a 2-0 led and time winding down the Lakers seemed to be losing the strength to bring the game in their favor.
The Lakers defense was in steady effect away. There were seven saves, from Georgia native Leuri Fraire, compared to the three save from Lander. Lander did effectively move the ball taking eighteen shot attempts compared to the Laker’s ten shot attempts throughout the game.
Throughout the game the obvious difference between the Lakers and Bearcats was the fearless number of shot attempts Lander had taken. Making more shots gave them an upper leg in the game. Both teams also got into some foul trouble with the CST racking up 14 fouls and Lander with 12 fouls.
The Lakers didn’t give up without a fight, number red-shirt junior Connor Atkinson led the game in shot attempts with sophomore midfielder Mitro Turuen close behind with two shots. Kwaku Dwamena, Dean foster and Hector Guiterrez all pitched in with a shot on goal attempt.
The Lakers season came to an immediate halt at the hands of Lander. They had a very difficult schedule to take on this season and were unfortunately not at their very best, plagued by injuries and playing equally talented tough teams, they took each loss and looked for possible improvements.
Congratulations to the Laker family and we look forward to the 2019-20 season.