JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — It was a thriller if you are a Sporting Club Jacksonville fan or a neutral as Lexington Sporting Club and the Florida side battled in a back-and-forth affair that featured three goals in the final six minutes of play plus stoppage. After falling behind 1-0 early, LSC battled back to take a 2-1 lead before conceding twice in the dying moments to ultimately lose, 3-2.
Jacksonville jumped out to a quick start by scoring the opening goal 19 minutes into the match. Lexington turned it over on the Sporting JAX half, and the hosts broke quickly down the right side. They took advantage of the three-on-one counter opportunity and took the early lead.
It took nearly an hour of play for Lexington to find the equalizer, but it finally arrived for the Greens. Blaine Ferri dropped a dime from his deep-lying playmaker position to spring Marcus Epps. Epps timed his run perfectly, torching his defender and opting for finesse to tuck his shot inside the back post.
The Greens appeared to find the winner when Xavier Zengue headed in a beautiful cross from Jacob Greene in the 84’ minute, the defender’s third goal of the season.
However, Sporting JAX stunned Lexington with goals in the 88’ and 90+4’ minutes to re-take the lead and win its third match of the season.
Despite the five total goals scored, both goalkeepers put up gaudy numbers. Lexington’s Oliver Semmle concluded the evening with nine saves while Sporting JAX’s Jake McGuire tallied five on the evening.
The loss constitutes the third defeat on the bounce for Lexington, who now owns a 9W-10L-4D record. Seven matches remain in the USL Championship regular season for LSC to bounce back and re-claim a prominent position in the Western Conference standings.
GOALS
19’ JAX: Kieran Sadlier (assist: Jean Mota)
73’ LEX: Marcus Epps (assist: Blaine Ferri)
84’ LEX: Xavier Zengue (assist: Jacob Greene)
88’ JAX: Emil Jääskeläinen
90+4’ JAX: Ahmad Al Qaq (assist: Adam Luckhurst)
LINEUPS
LEX: Oliver Semmle, Jacob Greene (90+4’ Patrick Seagrist), Javain Brown, Kendall Burks, Xavier Zengue, Blaine Ferri, Noble Okello, Marcus Epps, Nick Firmino (69’ Milo Yosef), Malcolm Fry (69’ Tarik Scott), Phillip Goodrum
JAX: Jake McGuire, Marcus Godinho (81’ Thomas Roberts), Ryan Edwards, Wahab Ackwei (86’ Antonio Gomez), Rafferty Pedder (80’ Ahmad Al Qaq), Jean Mota, Jordan Rossiter, Edgardo Rito, Kieran Sadlier (72’ Harvey Neville), Emil Jääskeläinen, Wan Kuzain (86’ Adam Luckhurst)
UP NEXT
LSC is back on the road to take on Oakland Roots SC at the Coliseum next Saturday, Sept. 12, at 10 p.m. ET.
