Last season it was the Lee soccer team that came from behind in the final minutes to either pull out a victory or at least earn a draw. On Tuesday evening at the Bryan College soccer field, the Lions came roaring back in the final 10 minutes to score a pair of goals and force the Flames to settle for a double-overtime 2-2 tie.
Lee moved out to a 1-0 lead in the first half when David Perez scored off an assist by Quade Marinell at the 31:20 mark. The margin grew to 2-0 in the second half when Marinell picked up his third goal of the season, but the determined Lions would not go down without a fight.
With 9:52 showing on the scoreboard clock, Jordan Dunstan cut the lead to 2-1 with an unassisted score, and then with just 0:53 the Lions tied the contest on an own goal, according to Lee head coach Paul Furey.
"We've got to do a better job of closing out a game when we are up," pointed out coach Furey.
"We certainly made an exciting game out of this one. We played well and had the game in hand and let it slip away. We had a couple of great chances to win in overtime but just didn't finish. Give their keeper credit. He had a good game."
Neither team was able to record a shot on goal in the first overtime but Lee fired a pair of shots in the second 10 minute period and placed one on goal. In fact, the Flames out-shot the host Lions 22-11 in the contest and placed 11 on goal. Bryan had just five shots on target but Lion goalkeeper Josh Oldroyd came away with nine key saves. Lee's Tom Halsall had three saves in the tie.
"We could really be disappointed about the end result," added the Lee coach. "But we need to make the most of it and move on. We've got a big weekend ahead of us."
The Flames will take a 2-0-1 record on the road to Florida this