Box Score DAYTON, Tenn. – For a brief moment it appeared as if a familiar story would haunt the 25th-ranked Georgia Gwinnett men's soccer team on Saturday evening as Bryan came back from two goals down to draw even in the second half. However, those worries were put to rest in short fashion as Martin Lugo netted the winner in a 3-2 victory over the host Lions.
"After giving one away two weeks ago, I was really pleased with how we started," GGC head coach Steve DeCou said. "I'm a little disappointed that we allowed the two goals, but it was an exceptional response from the team. We showed a lot of the grit and fight that maybe we lacked against Martin Methodist. I'm very proud of the team, and hopefully this win can be the start of a big run to take us into the conference tournament."
Lugo, who ranks second all-time in goals for GGC, couldn't have picked a better time to score his third of the season, responding to a 59th minute equalizing strike by Bryan's Joel Glover with a header off of a Jack Gurr corner two minutes later to make it 3-2.
From there, Lewis Sharpe would rack up a pair of saves to keep the Lions off the board as GGC improved to 6-3-3 on the year. Bryan fell to 6-4-2.
While the game came down to the wire, it had the makings of a comfortable win for the Grizzlies in the early goings, beginning with a Samuel Sampaio Gomes strike 11 minutes into the match. Lugo provided the assist on the opening goal, giving him 17 for his career, which is just two shy of the GGC record, held by former Grizzlies German Rodriguez and Ibrahima Sissoko.
In the 26th minute, Jon Conner continued his exceptional scoring run, netting his fourth goal of the season to double the advantage for the Green and Gray. The sophomore out of Loganville has scored all four of his goals over the past five matches, and he's logged either a goal or an assist in each of those matches.
However, any hope for a smooth ride for DeCou and the team was halted quickly after the break as Charlie Clarke connected less than four minutes into the second half to halve the deficit, setting the stage for Glover's equalizer 12 minutes later.
GGC will now go into next Saturday's home match against Florida National looking to register back-to-back wins for the first time since August. The match is slated for a 1 p.m. start from Grizzly Soccer Complex.
NOTES: GGC is now 12-1 all-time vs. teams that hail from the state of Tennessee … The Grizzlies are now 7-0-1 all-time following a loss with a 2-0-1 record this season after dropping a match … Martin Lugo has 25 career goals, which is just three shy of tying former Grizzly Tom Butler's school record total … The Grizzlies are 15-2-1 all-time in the month of October.
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