GREENWOOD – Even with two goals coming from Tom Marriott, the Lander men's soccer team fell to North Georgia 4-2 at home on Wednesday evening.
With the loss, Lander drops to 9-7-0 overall and 6-5-0 in the PBC while North Georgia moves to 6-9-1 overall and 3-7-1 in the PBC.
The Bearcats saw North Georgia take a quick 2-0 edge through the first 4.5 minutes of play while the Nighthawks would tack on one more first-half goal in the 38th minute of play.
Each side would attempt seven shots in the first frame.
Lander hasn't allowed three goals in a single half since its 5-2 loss at Anderson this season on Sept. 11.
North Georgia struck again in the 60th minute of play to make it a 4-0 contest.
In the 66th minute of play, the Bearcats would finally see results. Down the far side of the field, Joe Linley would find Carson Dinger who would flick a pass into the box for Marriott to fire into the net to make it 4-1.
Marriott would once again find the back of the net in the 81st minute after a lovely backheel flick from Max McNulty found the speedy midfielder.
Marriott is now up to 15 goals, 10 assists and 40 points on the season. The only player to have scored more goals since 2010 is Clement Dauchy. Dauchy scored 16 in the 2013 season. The last time Lander had a player break 40 points in a season was back in 2006. Nick Cooke and Adam Arthur passed the 40 point mark with 43 and 41 respectively. The most points recorded since 2000 is 46, and that marks belongs to Luke Ibbetson in 2003.
Both Simon Reithmeir and Jacob Withers saw action against the Nighthawks. The duo both allowed two goals and made two saves each.
Coming into the match, the Bearcats had a chance of securing the No. 2 seed in the PBC Tournament this week. After failing to collect points against the Nighthawks, Lander will either be the No. 3 or 4 seed.
Lander will either host Georgia Southwestern or North Georgia on November 6 at Van Taylor Stadium.
Lander concludes the regular season with a visit from Flagler on Saturday.
#cLawsUp | @LanderMSOC
