HENDERSON — The Freed-Hardeman Lion men's soccer team lined up for the first time in history against new NAIA member, the Champion Christian (Ark.) College Tigers.Though the guests opened the scoring, the Lions had three different goalscorers to take the weekend victory 3-1.
The Lions (4-1-3) had no trouble getting offense, taking 12 shots in the first half alone. Despite that, it was Champion Christian that broke the tie. At 40:00, a pass settled at the feet of the Tiger striker who wound up and rocketed it past the Lion keeper. Three minutes later, at 43:07, the Lions scored an equalizer on a corner kick.
Henry Appiah kicked off the set piece where
Alex Wright's header pinged the post, but had enough momentum to cross over the goal line for the goal.
The first 30 minutes of the second half were again a midfield battle until FHU was able to grab the lead after
Henry Appiah drove through the box to beautifully set up
Adrian Mann - whose shot found the back of the net to make it a 2-1 lead over the Tigers (1-2-0) at 81:49. Shortly thereafter,
Martin Theissen crossed a pass that hit the boot of
David Hajduk to one-touch to
Sam Sebagabo. Sebagabo made no mistake and buried his season's second goal of the season in the 86th minute.
By the end of the contest, FHU had amassed 35 shots to CCC's nine. Between the pipes,
Gaspar Bourdon made two saves in the win.
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Up Next
It's back to Mid-South Conference play for the Lions as they are set to host the No. 6 Cumberland Phoenix on September 18 with a 6:00 p.m. kickoff.
Second paragraph edited 9/13/26 12:09 p.m. to reflect assist correction on FHU's first goal
