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From start to finish the night belonged to the Lee men's soccer team as it dominated Shorter, 7-0 to open up Gulf South Conference play on Saturday night in front of a full house at the Lee Soccer Field.

Aidan Moore and Palle Jespersen each scored twice in the offensive explosion for the Flames. Moore got things going as he slipped past the defender and hammered it home off a pass from Jose Orellana in the 30^th minute.

Orellana would make it 2-0 when he drilled a shot past the diving keeper into the right side of the net for his first goal of the season at the 32:09 mark. Jared McWhorter and Matt Chartier were credited with the assist.

Jespersen scored the first of his two goals to end the half up 3-0 in the 40th minute as he broke away from the defense and slipped a shot past the goalkeeper.

It was an extra special night for Orellana and not just because he tallied three points in a big conference win. Orellana thought he would be out for the year with an injury before being cleared to play this week.

"I was scared at the beginning of the game and then prayed a little bit and was so excited to be back and ready to play the whole time," said Orellana.  We finished our chances tonight and that helped the team gain confidence as the match went on. This is one of the most exciting matches I've been a part of, it was a total team effort."

The Flames poured it on in the second half as Reese Lavery added his first collegiate goal at the 56:17 mark.

Moore tallied his fourth goal the year and second of the match  in the 65^th minute to make it 5-0 as he won a one on one battle with the Shorter keeper. Next up Will Carter delivered a ball into Jespersen who finished the chance at the 67:51 mark before Alfie Coldron provided the exclamation point on the evening as he rocketed a shot into the upper 90 from the far right wing to complete the victory with just two minutes remaining..

"In a game like this there can be some trap doors that you want to avoid and we talked about that before the game so we wanted to play to our standard from the start and the goals came but we kept the tempo up and kept the pressure on the whole night. It's great to start the Gulf South Conference with a win and so I was proud of our effort and now we move on," said head coach Derek Potteiger.

Daniel Hrenko and freshman Liam Dipple combined to keep the clean sheet. Hrenko worked the first 62:22 before giving way to Dipple.

Sean Carpenter started in goal for the Hawks and surrendered six goals while registering three saves in 71 minutes of work. Seth Allen allowed one goal and had one save as he cleaned up the final 18:54.

Lee controlled every facet of the game outshooting the Hawks, 28-1 while earning four corner kicks. The Flames defense did not allow a corner kick and was never seriously challenged.

The win propels the Flames to 3-2-1 on the year while the loss sends Shorter to 0-6.

Coach Potteiger's club will get back to work on Friday as they host Auburn-Montgomery at 5 p.m. The Women will follow at 7 p.m. in the annual Kickin It For Kids with Cancer match.

"We got two tough games next weekend so we will need some guys to step up but I think our depth is a big strength to this club so we will be ready to face the challenge," concluded Potteiger.