A goal in each half led the Lee University men’s soccer team to a 2-0 shutout over Spring Hill College on Friday afternoon. It was the second win in a row for the Flames who improved their record to 5-3-1 overall and 2-2-1 in Gulf South Conference play while SHC fell to 2-7 on the season and 1-3 in GSC play.
The Badgers of Spring Hill came out of the games quickly taking a couple of shots early that forced a few blocks from the Flames. After Lee settled in, they started to take control of the pace of play.
Their possession led to several good looks at goal but they couldn’t convert. In the 25th minute, Marc Ehmann scored his first goal of the season on a free kick from about 25 yards out. He bent the ball around the wall and found the bottom right corner of the goal to give Lee a 1-0 lead.
Marcos Garcia scored the second goal for the Flames in the 58th minute. Fabian Navarro helped set the goal on with a crossed from the right side of the penalty box. The ball deflected off the Spring Hill goalkeeper and fell right to the feet of Garcia who calmly slotted it in.
It was the third goal of the season for Garcia which is tied for second best on the Lee squad with Ryan Chouyouti. For Navarro, it was a team best fifth assists of the season. Garcia had three shots on the contest to move into second place on the team in shots taken with 18 on the season.
The Flames had one more opportunity to add to their goal tally with a penalty kick, but Eamon McLaughlin’s penalty hit the crossbar and stayed out of the net.
Lee outshot SHC 11-3 while both teams committed 11 fouls.
The Flames will be back in action on Sunday, October 1 as they will play at the University of West Florida at 1:30 PM in Gulf Breeze, Fla.
Coach Derek Potteiger’s Thoughts:
“I’m really proud of our collective performance today. Spring Hill is not an easy place to play and so to get the win and do it with clean sheet is a very good result.”
“We had some very solid individual performances and I think each game we can finding out a little bit more about who we are and how we can get better.”
“I would have liked to get the third goal as 3-0 changes everything, but it just meant we had to finish out the game well and that’s a good experience to work through.”
“Now we have to rest up and get ready for what will be a big time battle on Sunday afternoon at West Florida.”