Kids from the Austin Hatcher Foundation, helping families affected by pediatric cancer, join the Lady Flames on the field during the player introductions on Friday night.
photo by Lee University
Kickin’ It For Kids With Cancer has been a longtime tradition for the Lee women’s soccer team and it concluded the annual fundraiser for the Austin Hatch Foundation with a 5-1 victory over Spring Hill College on Friday evening on the Lee soccer pitch.
“I thought today went really well for many reasons,” said Lee head coach Chris Hennessey.
“First off it was nice to see so many members of the foundation attend the game and obviously getting the win topped it all off. On behalf of the team and staff, I want to thank all the fans that showed up to support the event and the Austin Hatcher Foundation for helping make this a special evening.”
The win by the Lady Flames sets up a showdown with GSC rival West Florida on Sunday at 1 p.m. The Argonauts won at Shorter (2-0) on Friday and improved to 4-1 in league play and 7-2 overall. The Lady Flames are 3-1, 7-2.
The visiting Badgers stunned the Lady Flames with a goal in the first 22 seconds. Olivia Odimegwu was credited with the unassisted score. Lee waited until the 29:52 mark to tie the contest on senior Riley Engels fourth goal of the season. The game remained deadlocked 1-1 at halftime.
“I was pleased with the amount of chances we created. Although we went down early, we showed good patience and played the rest of the game with a lot of maturity,” added Hennessey.
The second half was an entirely different story as the Lady Flames came out on fire. In the 48th minute, junior Riley Henry connected on the first of her two straight goals. It was her fourth and fifth goals of the year and both were assisted by junior Devin Healy. Sophomore Julia Kaset connected for her first goal of the year in the 66th minute and it was unassisted. The final tally came on another unassisted goal by senior Emma Higgins fourth goal of the year in the 86th minute.
Lee completely dominated the match outshooting the visitors 27-2. The Lady Flames placed 14 shots on target and the Badgers had just one on frame. Red-shirt senior Taylor Green played just over 74 minutes in goal and improved her record to 7-2-0 with one save. Spring Hill’s Hannah Linss fought off the barrage of shots by the Lady Flames the entire 90 minutes and was credited with nine saves. Her record slips to 1-6-0.