Jonah Bryan and the Lee defense posted their ninth shutout of the season to send the Flames to the GSC Semifinals on Tuesday evening.
Yotam Babul picked just the right time to score his first collegiate goal as he helped send the Lee men's soccer team to the Gulf South Conference Semifinals with his score in the 82nd minute of a 1-0 victory over Christina Brothers on a blistering cold evening at the Lee Soccer Field.
Babul connected through traffic off a free kick from Eemeli Makela to give the Flames their second straight GSC Quarterfinal win over Christian Brothers. Lee defeated the Bucs last year in Memphis to secure the program's first GSC Championship victory.
The defense posted its ninth shutout of the season led GSC All-Conference members, goalkeeper Daniel Hrenko and defender Jonah Bryan.
Hrenko recorded four saves in the victory.
"We made a decision to change formation in our previous meeting with CBU and we've just committed to a style of play that everyone has bought into," said Bryan. "It was so cold tonight I could barely talk to my teammates out there but we were able to rally together to pull out this win."
When asked about matching up with Christian Brothers' all-conference player Maxi Galizzi Bryan was quick to praise his opponent, "I love playing against him. He's such a talented player and it's always a great battle when we matchup. He won some balls today and I won some balls today and when you compete someone like that it causes you to raise your game to another level."
The grind-it-out affair was evenly contested throughout with CBU holding a 7-6 advantage in shots and both teams placing four on target. Lee earned five corner kicks while the Bucs attempted three.
"We committed in several weeks ago in the win at Christian Brothers that we were going to be a defensive-minded team and we weren't going to give up goals," said Lee head coach Derek Potteiger. "Since that point we haven't lost and we've given up just two goals. It was another gutsy performance by our guys and Yotam was able to make something happen there at the end."
The physical battle saw 15 fouls called on the visitors while the Flames were whistled for eight.
Freshman Wayne Davis recorded three saves while allowing the one goal in net for the Bucs.
The fourth-seeded Flames will take on the GSC regular season champion Mississippi College Choctaws at 1 p.m. on Friday in the semifinals from Pensacola, Fla. The two teams battled to a 1-1 draw earlier this season in Cleveland.
"I told the guys that we need to celebrate the opportunity to compete in the postseason but then go out and just play our game. That's what we are going to do on Friday and hopefully we can keep this story going," concluded Potteiger.
With the win the Flames improve to 10-4-4 on the year marking the first time since 2015 that they've reached double-figures in wins. Christian Brothers ends its season at 7-9-1.