Playing in its final tune-up before entering the postseason the Lee men’s soccer team gave up a goal in the 90th and final minute to fall 2-1 to Tusculum on a cool, fall Wednesday evening from the Lee Soccer Field.
With the score tied at 1-1 the Pioneers beat the clock scoring with 57 ticks left on the clock as Ivan Adnabak slipped a shot through the hands of Lee keeper Daniel Hrenko to give the Tusculum the road victory.
Samaan Williams got the Flames on the board first as he blasted home a deflected shot from Matt Chartier in the 37th minute.
Williams, a junior from Snellville, Ga., now has six goals on the season. Chartier was credited with the assist after his shot ricocheted off of the Tusculum keeper.
“Samaan is streaky so hopefully this goal will give him some confidence heading into postseason play,” said head coach Derek Potteiger. “The reality is though we have to be better across the board. We had several opportunities in the match but failed to convert.”
It was tale of two halves as the Flames held command in the first half out shooting Tusculum 8-3. The Pioneers were in control for the much of the second 45 however as they held a 12-4 advantage in shots.
The Pioneers found the equalizer in the 58th minute as Shawn Foster scored in a crowd of players off a corner kick from Dani Gongora.
Hrenko registered five saves in the loss while Sam Gilbert, filling in after the Pioneers starting goalie went down with an injury in warmups, had three saves in the win.
“For whatever reason we’ve had mental lapses throughout the last few games that have cost us,” added Potteiger. “I told the boys we can’t afford any more of that moving forward into postseason. We have to play a focused 90-plus minutes.”
With the loss Lee ends the regular season at to 8-6-3. The win sends Tusculum to 8-6-1.
The Flames will now wait for the GSC regular season to conclude this weekend to see where and who they will play. Lee is currently third in the conference standings behind Spring Hill (13-1, 9-0) and West Florida (9-3-2, 7-1-1) and is in line to host a first round match on Tuesday.