The Lee Flames and the Auburn Montgomery Warhawks had played their last 370 minutes of soccer against each other, spanning three different matches, scoreless in the Gulf South Conference rivalry series. That was until a penalty kick gave the Warhawks a 1-0 win over the Flames just 29 seconds into the second overtime on Saturday evening from the Ray Conn Sports complex.
The two clubs had several quality scoring chances throughout the match, including a point-blank header by Cairo Arantes with 17 seconds left in the first overtime that was acrobatically saved by Warhawk keeper, Alexander Kraus.
The senior netminder ended with five saves and made two highlight reel saves that were one on one situations.
Lee keeper Sam Keener was equally impressive. The reigning GSC Defender of the Week had six saves and made an overtime key save of his own to keep the game scoreless. Keener's only blemish was a penalty kick by Renan Diniz.
"Obviously it's tough to lose a match on a PK in double overtime but matches like these our played with a razor's edge margin for error and sometimes those calls go against you," said Lee head coach Derek Potteiger. "I thought Sam continued to play some of his best soccer of his career tonight. He made a couple of plays that kept us in the match and their keeper did the same for them. We expected a physical battle, and I thought our guys rose to the challenge."
AUM held a 13-8 advantage in shots and 7-5 edge in shots on goal. The whistle was blown often as 31 fouls were called, 20 on the Warhawks and 11 on the Flames and six yellow cards were shown.
Both teams had opportunities to score throughout the second half but to no avail. Mattia Balzano led the Flames with three shots while Arantes had two shots on goal. The header at the end of the first overtime and a shot that sailed just wide in the second half.
"One of things we've talked about with our guys is the importance of momentum. We want to build off of good momentum and we want to squash negative momentum and not have two bad results in a row," added Potteiger. "Our guys will have short memories and be ready to come out and get to work on Tuesday.
The No. 18 Flames fall to 6-2 on the year and 4-1 in the GSC. The Warhawks improve to 5-2-1 and are 3-0-1 in conference play.
The Flames will jump outside of the GSC for a pair of matches next week. Lee travels up the road to Harrogate, Tenn. to visit Lincoln Memorial on Tuesday afternoon at 3:30 p.m. The Flames return home next Saturday to host Emmanuel College at 7 p.m.
"We knew each and every GSC match was going to be an absolute battle and we've seen that through the first part of the schedule," noted Potteiger. "While non-conference matches certainly feel a bit different every college soccer match is going to be a fight and we need to be ready to put together two good performances next week."