LEXINGTON, Ky. – Lexington Sporting Club recorded a historic victory over CV Fuego FC inside Lexington SC Stadium in Lexington on Wednesday night, winning 7-1.
“It’s just one game at a time, any given night scores can happen in different ways, we felt along the way that we should’ve scored more goals in certain games and that hadn’t materialized, so just super proud of the way the guys came out tonight, stuck to the game plan, world both sides of the ball as hard as they possibly could til the final whistle,” head coach Darren Powell said. “Guys that came into the game made impacts as well, all around it’s a really good team performance.”
The result marked the first match of a two-match week for the Greens and also served as the second and penultimate match for the men inside Lexington SC Stadium for the 2024 season.
While the match started slow with neither side putting up a meaningful chance in the first 15 minutes of play, Ates Diouf broke open the scoring in the 18th minute, heading a ball into the net that was sent in by Nico Brown.
The Greens doubled this lead in the 24th minute when Cameron Lancaster received a ball from Brown and fired one into the back of the net.
The goal would just be the beginning for Lancaster, who quickly found his second in the 34th minute after an assist by Diouf.
Going on to complete a first-half hat trick, the second hat trick in club history and the first in a single half, Lancaster sent a third goal into the net off his own ricochet in the first minute of stoppage time to make the score 4-0 heading into the break.
“I think as a team we needed to put in a performance, it’s about time we’ve scored a few goals in a game,” Lancaster said. “We knew where we are in the table that we needed to win and that’s what we did and I’m proud of the team.”
Back in action in the second half, Fuego was able to pull a goal back in the 56th minute to trail by three goals. Chris Heckenberg scored the goal off an assist by Alfredo Midence.
Not to be deterred, Kentucky’s own Kaelon Fox added a fifth Greens goal in the 67th minute after a corner kick by recent signee Marcel Canadi. The goal marked the first time the Greens had ever scored five goals in a single match.
Lexington didn’t stop there, though, scoring a sixth in the 84th minute courtesy of Brown — plus an assist by Tate Robertson — and added punctuation in the fourth minute of stoppage time when Kameron Lacey found the net off an assist by Issac Cano, furthering the historic nature of the victory.
“I think this is a statement,” Lacey said. “We know that (the remaining schedule) is six cup finals — five now — and we’re trying to make a statement to the league that, hey, we’re not going to give up, we’re going to be there and we’re going to make the playoffs.”
Before long, the full-time whistle brought about a 7-1 final in Lexington, the largest win in club history.
“I think it sets the standard for us, anything below that is not acceptable,” Lancaster said. “It’s going to give us confidence going into Richmond this weekend, we’re looking forward to it. It should have been (playing like it’s do-or-die) from the start of the season til the end of the season, so we know what we need to do. We know the position that we’re in, every game is going to be a cup final and we’re ready for that.”
Fuego controlled the possession in the match, holding onto the ball 51.9% of the time while Lexington won in expected goals with a 1.54-0.88 advantage.
Next up for the Boys in Green, they’ll be right back at it on Saturday night, traveling to Virginia to face off against the Richmond Kickers. Kickoff against the Kickers inside City Stadium is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET and will air live on ESPN+ on Saturday, Sept. 21.
About Lexington Sporting Club
Lexington Sporting Club is a U.S. Soccer professional soccer club competing in USL League One (U.S. Soccer third division men’s professional soccer), and in USL Super League (women’s professional soccer launching in 2024). The two professional teams are the pinnacle of the soccer ecosystem in Lexington that features more than 1,000 players within its youth and academy systems. Lexington SC in the process of building the club’s formal stadium, performance center and training fields.