Box Score Gaffney, S.C. – The Men's Soccer Team marched into battle with an upset on their minds, but ended up falling in extra time, 3-2, against No. 14 Limestone College on Thursday night in the season opener for the 2018 campaign.
INSIDE THE MATCHUP:
Final: No. 14 Limestone 3, Lenoir-Rhyne 2
Records: No. 14 Limestone (1-0, 1-0 SAC), Lenoir-Rhyne (0-1, 0-1 SAC)
Location: Saints Field | Gaffney, S.C.
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STATS OF THE MATCH:
• Lenoir-Rhyne junior goal keeper
Alexander Langer (Stuttgart, GERMANY) took the loss in goal after battling for over 109 minutes, but made two saves in the process. The winning keeper for the Saints was senior Mirko Ronchi (Cornerado, ITALY), who also managed to record a save on the evening.
• Of the six shots taken by the Bears, three of them were on goal. LR's defense gave up 10 shots, but only five were on goal.
• The Bears got off to a hot start, with senior midfielder
Cameron Saul (LONDON, ENGLAND) scoring the first goal of the year for LR off the rebound in the 34
th minute. There was a goal scored by the Saints, before we had back-to-back Penalty Kick goals. The one from LR was by Team Captain and senior midfielder
Florian Simon (OBEROTTERBACH, GERMANY) followed by another from Limestone that tied the match at 2-2 in the 78
th minute.
• It took sudden death for this one to be completed, and the Saints did just that in the 109
th minute with a goal from freshman Dan Javed (Manchester, ENGLAND).
BEYOND THE BOXSCORE:
• This marks three-straight losses for the Bears, dating back to the 2017 matchup against Anderson in the South Atlantic Conference Quarterfinals.
• This was the second-straight year that the Bears and Saints have fought to extra time, with LR coming out on top, 1-0, at home last season.
• Simon was elected All-SAC in 2017, and this start is promising to build off that success.
• Saul's impact was immediately felt in his first game as an LR Bear after transferring into the program, and this will go down as his first goal in an LR uniform.
UP NEXT:
LR will travel to Banner Elk, N.C. to play Lees-McRae on Saturday, September 1, at 7:00 p.m. Limestone will host SAC foe Queens on September 2, 7:00 p.m. at Saints Field.
