PENSACOLA, Florida – The West Florida Argonauts claimed the Gulf South Conference Championship with a 2-1 victory over the Lee men's soccer team on a sun-splashed Sunday afternoon at the Ashton Brosnaham Park.

A two-minute flurry just out of the halftime break was the difference in the match. The Argonauts tied things up just three minutes into the second half on a free kick from 25 yards out by veteran Ed Chappe who slipped it into the lower right corner of the net past a diving Sam Keener. Just two minutes later it was Bernado Torres delivering the eventual game-winning goal off a pass from Kainan Dos Santos. Chappe was named the tournament Most Outstanding Player.

The Flames had a couple of good looks to find the equalizer as Jared McWhorter had a shot sail high in the 56^th minute and a free kick in the 60^th minute from 30 yards out was headed away by the Argonauts defense.

"They came out with a ton of emotion in the second half and made some adjustments and I thought had a belief they were going to find the back of the net. In soccer goals often come in pairs and it takes a special response to make sure the second one doesn't come but unfortunately, they connected on back to back scores. I thought from there we bounced back and had some chances but it wasn't meant to be," said Lee head coach Derek Potteiger."  

Lee controlled the contest for the first 45 minutes. After several close chances Lee struck first in the 34^th minute as Fabian Navarro found Mattia Balzano near the far post who delivered it home to give Lee the 1-0 advantage. Lee outshot the Argonauts, 7-3 and earned five corner kicks in an aggressive attacking first half of play.

Lee held a 12-10 advantage overall in shots and took eight corners to just one for West Florida but were unable to connect on the set piece opportunities.
Sam Keener ended an outstanding career in net for the Flames with four saves. West Florida's netminder Jihad Gomez earned the win with three saves.

McWhorter, whose overtime goal sent the Flames to the title match, Edgar Cervantes, and Eemeli Makela were named to the GSC All-Tournament team.

"Reflecting though overall we hit some high-water marks as a program and this is a learning experience and we'll be back. We play a tough brand of soccer and this team was fully bought into all year long and I really appreciate that. This is a tough loss but this is why we play to get the opportunity to play in championship matches and sometimes they don't go your way but I'm really proud of what this team accomplished this season," concluded Potteiger."

The Flames end the season at 13-5-1 on the year while West Florida improves to 12-3-3 after claiming the program's 10^th GSC Championship.