No. 8 Lander beats Anderson on Jamedar goal, advances to region championship:
The second-seeded and eighth-ranked Lander men’s soccer team got a goal in the 106th minute from Sia Jamedar to knock off sixth-seeded Anderson, 1-0, in double-overtime of the NCAA Southeast Regional semifinals on Sunday afternoon in front of a program-record 680 fans at Van Taylor Stadium.
Lander (15-1-3) will face top-ranked and top-seeded Young Harris in the Southeast Region championship next week.
“Obviously, we’re delighted to get through, I think the boys deserve it,” said head coach Lee Squires. “Full credit to Anderson, they were a great opponent. They took us all the way and a scrappy goal at the end was the difference. In the first half of overtime, we weren’t great, but in the second half we started to force the issue a bit more and find the goal.”
Neither squad could find the back of the net in regulation, combining for 29 shots in the first 90 minutes of play. The first overtime session featured three shots from the Bearcats, as Jacob Withers made the last of his six saves in the 98th minute.
On the day, Lander’s defense extended its program-record streak of holding opponents scoreless. The Bearcats have not allowed a goal in their last 814:16 of action.
Lander appeared to break through in the second overtime period, when a tackle on Richard Bryan in the box led to a Bearcat penalty kick. Jordan Skelton sent the shot low and to the left, but Trojan goalkeeper Gal Elyashiv made a diving deflection to keep Anderson alive.
Minutes later, the Bearcat struck paydirt when a header in the box deflected to the feet of Jamedar, who tapped the ball into the net to set off a wild celebration and put Lander into its second consecutive region championship match.
