After battling back from two scores down to force overtime, the Lee men's soccer team saw its seven match win streak snapped at the hands of West Florida on a sun splashed and breezy afternoon at the Lee Soccer Field.
The Argonauts posted the 3-2 victory thanks to Stephen Enderlin who delivered the game winning goal just over the outstretch arms of the Lee keeper with just over a minute left in the first extra period. The victory improves West Florida to 4-5 overall and 3-1-1 in the Gulf South Conference.
West Florida jumped out to the early lead with a goal in the 19th minute as Chandler Castleman scored from 25 yards out. Kameron Bethell was credited with the assist.
The duo would team up for the Argonauts second goal but this time it was Castleman setting up Bethell to push the lead to 2-0 at the 52:45 mark.
"West Florida has a couple of very good players and you give them a little room and they usually make you pay. We were little slow matching up in the overtime period and that cost us," noted head coach Paul Furey.
Just over a minute later David Perez helped bring the Flames back into the contest as he connected on an indirect kick from inside the box set in motion by Arturo Rocha.
Lee would gain the equalizer at the 63:03 mark as Rocha scored his second goal of the season on a pass from Danny Johnston.
"I'm certainly proud of the way we battled back from a two goal deficit. I like our mentality from that standpoint and thought we really had some chances there after we tied it up but we couldn't finish it off," said Furey.
Lee keeper freshman Daniel Hrenko (7-1) suffered his first collegiate loss as he posted three saves while allowing the three goals. West Florida's Phil D'Amico earned the victory with six saves.
The Flames outshot the Argos 20-14 and earned 11 corners to just four by the visitors. Lee placed eight shots on frame while West Florida had seven on target.
The gritty contest saw 27 total fouls called, "The Gulf South is a physical conference and you have to come out and be ready to go mentally and physically each and every time," acknowledge Furey. "It was a good game and I thought we played well enough to win but congrats to West Florida they played tough and earned the road victory which is not easy to do in this league."Â
Lee (8-4, 3-1) will look bounce back on Friday night as they travel to Livingston to matchup with West Alabama. Kickoff is set for 8 p.m.