You might say Ode (Fulutudilu) ran away with the match as the Lee women's soccer team opened the 2012 season with a convincing 6-1 victory over 19th-ranked Northwood (Fla.) in the Habitat for Humanity Classic being hosted by Embry Riddle.
Fulutudilu broke away from the Eagle defenders and put Lee on the board at the 16:12 mark of the opening half. She made it a 2-0 game some nine minutes later and put the Lady Flames up by two at the half. Fulutudilu continued her show of speed to begin the second 45 minutes. With less than three minutes gone in the second stanza, she broke away again and put Lee up 3-0.
Junior Ashley Aragona scored the first of her two goals at the 52:10 mark. She displayed her quickness by breaking away from the Eagle defense and putting her second score of the game at 71:30. In between Aragona's goals, came a score by Claire Lanter at the 53:12 mark. The tally came on a touch off a corner kick.
Northwood's only goal was recorded in the 82nd minute and it came on a header by Ervin Wells. The Eagles were only allowed five shots by the Lee defense the entire match and all five were on goal. Leah Wilson had four saves in goal for the winners. The Lady Flames took 14 shots in the well played match and nine were on goal.
"It is great to finally get our season off to a good start and produce a win against a quality opponent," said coach Matt Yelton. "We actually were not great with possession tonight but we did a very good job of taking our chances and making the best of them."
Yelton went on to praise the play of Fulutudilu. "I thought Ode showed a lot of composure tonight and the play to get her the ball out of our midfield was excellent. Ashley (Aragona) was also very good with her finishing and our backs did a good job of keeping a very good offense off the board until very late in the game."
The Lady Flames will rest a day before returning to face host Embry Riddle on Sunday at 1 p.m. "We will have to be at our best on Sunday, as Embry-Riddle is an extremely well coached team and has a lot of talented players that we know will want to avenge last year's result in the national tournament," added Yelton.