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Reiko Trott’s Lees-McRae goalkeeper senior Florida native, Sean Paradise, had five saves, including a penalty kick in regulation and a save in the shootout, to take the Lees-McRae College to the NCAA Division II Men's Soccer National Championship with a shootout win over the Lewis University Flyers.
Paradise came up big for the big for Lees-McRae at the end of the first half when Lewis’ Acxer Eduardo attempted a near post shot, but Paradise turned it away to keep the game scoreless at the half.
In the second half in the 58th minute, a Lees-McRae hand ball gave Lewisa penalty kick, but Paradise made a diving save to his right on Robert McGowan’s attempt to keep the game scoreless. The penalty kick saved turned out to be the second biggest save of Paradise’s career as a Lees-McRae player – his biggest save was yet to come.
In the 79th minute, Nestor Hernandez collected a punt and scored to put Lewis up 1-0, and one minute later, Hernandez received a pass from Charlie Bucio and buried his second goal of the game to give the Lewisa 2-0 lead.
But Lees-McRae didn’t give up and rallied in the 85th minute when Grant Elder, who came off the five minutes before, took a pass from Sam Kennedy and beat the Lewis’ keeper high to the far post to cut the lead to 2-1.
Two minutes later, Lee Squires, a two-time All-American who missed all but seven matches, buried the game tying goal. Squires found himself on the back post one-on-one after a Jamie Bladen shot was blocked by a Lewis defender.
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