Peachtree Ridge Lions Soccer

Rector’s Hat-Trick Lifts Lions Past Hornets

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The Lion’s matched their team high for goals in a game this season (4) on Friday Night in Aiken, South Carolina, and they would need each of them to secure the win against a strong Aiken High School Varsity Boys team.  

Ranked ninth in the large school division of the South Carolina state rankings, the Hornets were undefeated with a 10-0-1 record coming into the contest.

Having played five ranked Georgia opponents during a series of seven road games dating back to the start of the season, the Lion’s were no strangers to quality play in less than favorable atmospheres.  

The Lions dominated early possession in the match, and the effort paid off in the 17^thminute when a J.T. Taplin free kick bounced once to the head of Jeremy Rector, who flicked the ball on to Chris Cook. Cook went hard to goal only to find his shot deflected by the Hornet keeper high into the air.  Rector, who was making a strong follow-up run jumped high into the air and headed the ball into the back of the net from just inside the 18-yard line for the first goal of the contest and a 1-0 Lion lead.

Jeremy Rector scores the first of his three goals in Friday night’s win over Aiken

The Hornets kept pace in the 19^thminute as a well played cross found its mark and the resulting snap header found the back of the goal to tie the game at 1-1.

At the 24 minute mark, the Lion’s second goal came off a strong throw-in by Justin Sedam that found Juan Herrera with some room on the left side of the field.  Herrera dribbled around two Hornet defenders and slotted the ball into the side netting for a 2-1 Lion lead at the break.

Aiken came out with great intensity in the second half, and it paid dividends in the 52 minute when the Hornet's right mid broke free down the right side of the field and played a perfect shot into the far-side netting to dead-lock the match 2-2.

A brilliant balled played by Taplin at the 60^thminute of the match once again found an open Cook.  Cook one-timed the ball with a head-flick to Rector who was breaking to goal.  Rector side-stepped the only defender between him and a shot, and slotted the ball low to the keeper’s left side for the 3-2 lead and his second goal of the match.

The Lion’s 4^thgoal was a fantastic team effort as Andres Rodriquez played a great ball to Cook who was streaking down the left side of the field.  Cook drove hard toward the end line, but to the defender’s demise he stepped on the ball and turned back to the middle where he found a wide open Rector at the top of the box.  Rector chipped the keeper with a beautiful finesse shot for his 3^rdgoal of the game - taking the score to 4-2.

Interestingly for the Hornets, as time winds down in South Carolina soccer, the clock stops with 2:00 minutes to go and control of the game is turned over to the referees on the field.  At that point in this contest, the referee held up three fingers indicating 3 minutes of stoppage time.  It was a long three minutes.  Aiken ramped the intensity and at the 81 minute mark of the contest the Hornets found the back of the net again taking the score to 4-3.  To the relief of the Lion fans, the remaining seconds of the game saw the Lions win every 50/50 ball to seal the victory as over-time expired.