The No. 5-ranked Georgia Gwinnett College men's soccer team scored a goal in the 57th minute to post a 1-1 draw against Southeastern University (Florida) in Monday afternoon's Green Out Day home opener at the Grizzly Soccer Complex.
Junior
Pedro Nunes had the match-tying goal after the Grizzlies (2-0-1) found themselves trailing for the first time this season when the Fire (1-1-1) took a 1-0 lead in the 27th minute of the match.
Southeastern successfully countered GGC's attack and Pablo Lobon finished a one-on-one situation against the Grizzlies' goalkeeper
Victor Darub. Koren Klein set up the play by lobbing a ball over the host's defense after the team won control of the ball following a turnover.
Nunes' tying tally came after senior midfielder
Francisco Osorio took possession of the ball and delivered a quick pass to sophomore
Ousmane Fall inside the 18-yard box in front of the opposing goal. Fall then flicked the ball to a hustling Nunes, who buried the shot from the left side of the pitch into the open net.
It was the third goal of the fall campaign for Nunes.
GGC outshot Southeastern by a 17-8 margin and had several good scoring opportunities throughout the second half. The team nearly found the back of the net 33 seconds before Nunes' goal when a shot by Osorio from the top of the 18-yard box struck the left opposing goal post.
Later, Nunes headed a long ball from junior
Djordje Djurasinovic just wide of the goal in the 77th minute. Djurasinovic came off the bench to register a match-high four shots. Sophomore
Jean Malilo and freshman
JJ Grimaldo each added two shots in a reserve role, while Fall and Osorio each recorded two shots apiece.
Defensively, Darub made three of his four saves in the second half.
Coach's Corner
"Southeastern did a good job of sitting in defensively. In the first half, I thought we gave away too many counter attacks. The adjustments we made in the second half were advantageous for us and we were unlucky to not get the winning goal. Once we started attacking the flanks things started opening up for us and eventually led to our goal," said Head Coach
Steve DeCou.
Turning Point
A determined Grizzlies' offensive attack began the second half deeply committed in search of the equalizer. Junior
Pedro Nunes buried the ball into the back of the net for the team's lone goal of the match. It came after a quick initial pass from senior
Francisco Osorio in the middle of the pitch was made to sophomore
Ousmane Fall. The forward froze the Southeastern defenders just long enough before passing to Nunes, who took advantage of open space near the net to tally the match-tying goal in the 58th minute.
Goals
27' – Pablo Lobon, SEU (Koren Klein)
58' –
Pedro Nunes, GGC (
Ousmane Fall,
Francisco Osorio)
Inside The Numbers
- The Grizzlies outshot Southeastern by a 17-8 margin
- Junior Pedro Nunes scored his third goal of the season
- GGC attempted six corner kicks across Monday's 90 minutes of action
- Eight different GGC players registered a shot in the contest
News & Notes
- GGC now stands 2-0-1 in 2026; Southeastern is 1-1-1 this fall
- The Grizzlies were ranked No. 5 in the NAIA Preseason Top 25 poll
- Georgia Gwinnett College still leads the all-time series with Southeastern by a 4-0-3 margin; the last the meetings have resulted in draws on the Grizzlies' home pitch
- The team is 10-0-5 all-time in home openers
Up Next
Georgia Gwinnett College is scheduled to begin the Labor Day Grizzly Classic by playing New College of Florida on Saturday, September 5, at the Grizzly Soccer Complex, starting at 6 p.m.
