The Lakers men's soccer team played host to the Muskegon Community College Jayhawks and dropped a hard fought 2-1 decison on Saturday. With the defeat, the Lakers record now stands at 4-4-1. Lakeland started off strong and netted the first goal when Omani Leacock converted a through pass from Mohomed Abdulhameed at the 12 minute mark. Both teams continued to battle and had some chances. Lakeland tended to play more of a ground game and use thru passes to get most of their chances while the Jayhawks tried to play more over the top to counter the Lakers trapping defense. At the 21st minute mark, Muskegon chipped one into the penalty area and Laker netminder Niklas Gothe aggressively came out to play. In going for the ball he also made contact with the Jayhawk forward and so Muskegon was awarded a penalty kick. Theo Southall for the Jayhawks netted the penalty kick. From there, the game would get chippy on both sides as 38 fouls were called overall and 12 cards were given. The winning goal was scored on a defensive turnover in the Lakers half of the field. The ball was quickly moved forward and tucked past netminder Chanyong Kim in the 86th minute to seal the game. Kim finished with 3 saves.
Kettani's Comments: "It was a hard fought game. It got a bit chippy, but the team never gave up. We're looking forward to the play-offs."
Next up: The Lakers play host to the Jackson Community College Jets next Saturday (10/16) at 3pm.
