LIVINGSTON, Ala. – The Lee men's soccer team stumbled down the stretch in falling 2-1 at West Alabama in Sunday's GSC regular season finale.
The Flames are locked in to the GSC Tournament which will begin Oct. 30 but will await official seeding once all the other teams have complete their league schedules next week. Lee sits at 8-5-3 overall and are 6-3-2 in the GSC and in third place.
The Tigers, the defending league champions, opened the scoring early on in the ninth minute on a goal by Adam Zayed. Kyle McLeod set up the score and was given the assist.
The Flames found the equalizer in the 31
st minute as sophomore Jared McWhorter scored his second goal of the season.
The evenly contest matchup would continue tied until the 64:31 mark when Ali Brador headed home the game-winner off a pass a from Harrison Roberts.
The Flames held a 17-14 advantage in shots and a 12-8 edge in shots on goal.
Both goalkeepers had their hands full fending off the attack on the small West Alabama field. Lee's Daniel Hrenko tallied six saves in the loss while the Tigers Ollie Harrison wrangled up 11 big saves to key the victory.
"I thought we played really well on Friday night at UAH but lost our focus for one play and it cost us. Overall I was really pleased with our effort and quality though. Today was a different game and it felt like a different team showed up," said head coach Derek Potteiger. "UWA makes it a very physical game on their small turf field and we weren't ready to battle them or fight for our way to play. As a result they set the agenda and if the game becomes one long ball after the other, then West Alabama will more often than not win that battle."
Lee will wrap up regular season play on Wednesday as it welcomes Tusculum to town for a non-conference matchup from the Lee Soccer Field at 7 p.m.
"It's been a tough away schedule for us this season and this was a lousy way to end the GSC regular season. The good news is that we know we are in the GSC postseason and we have one week to get ready for that game; and the boys will be ready at that point for sure," concluded Potteiger
