Georgia Storm Defeats LSA Athletico Lanier 2-1
By Georgia Storm
Georgia Storm traveled to Allen Creek Soccer Stadium to play LSA Athletico at 7:00 pm on Saturday, May 29. LSA opened the match quickly, immediately going on the attack. LSA brought a great deal of energy that caused Georgia Storm issues in the early parts of the match.
Four minutes into the match, Georgia Storm’s left back errantly toe-poked the ball to LSA’s Juan Munoz-Monsalve, who blasted the ball into the top left corner from 30 yards, giving LSA Athletico the 1-0 lead. After the opening salvo, Storm started to gain a foothold in the match, earning a corner after about 20 minutes. Kevin Fitzgerald overhit his corner to the back post where Jacob Bivens picked it up and delivered the ball back. Next Storm’s Dakota Lynch headed the ball down but LSA goalkeeper Cooper Bowen made an excellent save, diving to his left.
About five minutes later, LSA played a poor pass across the field, which was intercepted by Storm’s Andrew Carleton, who beat his man, but fires the ball just past the far post. The rest of the half was mostly a midfield game with neither team really challenging either opposition’s goal. LSA went into halftime with a 1-0 lead.
To open the second half, Georgia Storm burst into the attacking half when a quick through from Storm’s Gary Shorrow found Carleton in behind on the left flank, who whipped an inch-perfect ball to Stephen Bivens. Then Bivens slid to volley the ball in the far corner for the equalizer. Storm was now on the front foot and spent most of the next half in LSA’s half.
15 minutes into the second half, Storm earned a corner, which was delivered by Fitzgerald. The ball was knocked down on the far post where Carleton smashed a volley against the left post, but it was covered by Bowen.
LSA then bent a ball for the top right corner for the lead, but Storm’s Fabian Pekruhl dived to his left and parried the ball over the bar for a corner. As play went to the other end, Storm’s Wilfried Kamdem-Tchoupa stood a ball up to the far post that Carleton left his feet to try a scissor-kick but Bowen saved it excellently down to his right. As the pressure was mounting, there was a challenge at midfield between LSA’s Miguel Romero and Storm’s Brayan Palencia where contact was made by Romero. The referee subsequently showed Romero his second yellow card, resulting in a red card and being sent off for the last 15 minutes of the match.
With five minutes to play, Storm’s Henry Hernandez and Carleton played a neat combination on the edge of the area where Carleton touched the LSA defender before being brought down in the penalty area, resulting in a penalty kick. Carleton took the ensuing penalty kick with a stutter step and slammed it into the bottom left hand corner to give Storm the 2-1 advantage. That was how the match ended with Georgia Storm improving to three wins and one loss on the year.
Photo Credit: Matthew Lackzo
