Drew Jackson struck a bullet into the corner of the net in the eighth minute and the Lee men’s soccer team held off a determined North Georgia club late to win 1-0 on Thursday evening from the Lee Soccer Field.
Jackson’s third goal of the season was set up by Jose Orellana who now has three assists on the season.
“Quade played a really good ball to me and I found Jose and he laid it back off to me and I just tried to do my job,” said Jackson after the match. “It feels great to win these last three.
Hopefully we can grab another win this weekend and take some momentum into conference play.”
Freshman keeper Daniel Hrenko notched his second straight shutout for the Flames as he had seven saves and withstood 15 shots, including 10 in the second half, from the Nighthawks. The Tampa, Fla. native is now 3-0 on the season and has yielded just one goal.
“For a freshman he plays with a lot of maturity and has a lot of confidence,” noted head coach Paul Furey when asked about his goalkeeper. “He has stepped in and done a really nice job for us over the last few matches and he really earned the shutout tonight.”
Lee fired 19 shots and placed six on target. Michael Samnik tallied five saves and held the Flames off the board after the early score to keep the Nighthawks in the contest.
In what proved to be a pivotal turning point, North Georgia appeared to tie things with a goal right at the horn to end the first half. The referee waved off the goal however and video replay confirmed that the score was a second too late.
“I thought we played a really good first half and probably should have had a second goal but we weren’t quite able to finish,” said Furey. “They were just a second away from equalizing there at the end of the first half and they really out played us in the second but this was a good night for us to battle throughout and hang on for the win.”
Both teams had plenty of scoring chances as Lee earned eight corners in the match while the Nighthawks took nine.
The Flames improve to 4-3 on the year and will ride a three match winning streak into Ohio to take on Cedarville to wrap up the non-conference portion of the schedule on Saturday at 7 p.m. The loss drops North Georgia to 3-5.
“We got a little momentum right now with three straight it would be nice to get four in a row,” remarked Furey. “I’m very familiar with Cedarville from time coaching in Ohio and it’s always a great environment to play up there so we are looking forward to the challenge and should be a good test for us as we prepare for a tough conference schedule.”