It was a slow start for Lakewood’s soccer team in Tuesday’s road game against North Duplin. After falling behind 2-0 at halftime, the Leopards went crazy, scoring 4 unanswered goals in the second half to win, 4-2.
Lakewood played well in the first half, but just couldn’t find the net. After making some defensive adjustments at halftime, the Leopards would go on to shut out the Rebels in the second half.
Lakewood cut the margin in half 17 minutes into the second half, when Javier Reyes scored the first Leopard goal of the game. The score remained 2-1 for the next 8 minutes, but in a 6 minute span in the final 9 minutes of the game, Lakewood scored the game’s last three goals.
The first came from Jonathan Gonzalez, who scored on an assist from Lloosman Zabala. Frances Flores then gave Lakewood the lead on an assist from Jonathan Gonzalez.
Lakewood’s last goal came with 3 minutes to play in the game, when Frances Flores put a corner kick in the right spot for Sean Andrew to chip in a header to give the Leopards the final 4-2 margin, getting them back into the win column.
Pate Holland had a big game for Lakewood once again, as he had 8 saves in 10 chances while defending the net.
“It was the most complete game we have played all season, we finally played a full 80 minutes,” said Lakewood’s head coach Jay Faircloth. “Everything that I have been waiting to come into place, it did tonight. We may not play like that again, but I was very pleased with the way we played tonight. It was fun to just sit back in the second half and watch us go ape-crazy on North Duplin, who has a very good soccer team and program. We are pleased to get the win and kind of stop the downhill fall we’ve been going through lately.”
Lakewood is now 4-6-1 overall and 4-3 in conference play. They get back to business next Monday when they are set to host Neuse Charter for another Carolina 1A Conference game.