The Lakeland men's soccer team played host to the Cuyahoga Triceratops today and dropped a hard fought 6-3 decision in their season opener. The Lakers started the game a bit tentative. The Lakers are a very young team and struggled to get their game going early on. Cuyahoga took advantage as they netted the first goal. The Lakers regained their form and pressured Tri-C until Aly Sidibe tied the game on a corner from Blais Gosse. Cuyahoga bounced back later in the half scoring on a Lakeland mistake to take a 2-1 lead going into the break.
The second half was not indictive of the final outcome. Lakeland came out hard in the second half and carried much of the play. The possession game of the Lakers was creating several opportunities, but Lakeland was just unable to connect. About 5 minutes into the period, a Lakeland forward found themselves all alone in front of th Cuyahoga net on a beautiful thru pass. Unfortunately, Lakeland was unable to convert and paid the price moments later. After the miss, Cuyahoga would counter attack and score a goal after a sideline rush. Lakeland was not finished though. Again they pressured the Triceratops and were eventually awarded a penalty kick. Bryon Perez calmly stepped to the line and scored in the lower right hand corner to make it 3-2. Lakeland continued the pressure and scored the tying goal as Abram Gutierrez collected the ball on a scrum in front of the Tri-C goal. Both teams would battle back and forth with some quality scoring opportunities before Tri-C cashed in on a misplayed ball. Cuyahoga added two late goals as the Lakers tried to push up to get additional offensive pressure.
The Lakers outshot cuyahoga 23-19 (11-8 on goal). Lakeland also out cornered Tri-C 8-5.
Coach Torres Talks: "We started off slow as we tried to find our rhythm early and that hurt us at first. We played really well in the second half to tie it up. We also missed a few chances that could have put us up. We've got some places where we can cleanup and get better defensively; but overall, a good team effort - we had our chances and just missed some today. We'll get back at it and get better for our upcoming games. We have a quick turn around tomorrow so hopefully we can come out and play to our ability."
