Thursday the Tigers traveled to Lynchburg to face Conference foe Liberty Christian. This would be the second meeting between these squads this season with HMA holding the series lead 1-0.
The Tigers would open the scoring midway through the first quarter of play on a goal by Mitchell Baker with defenseman Nick Foster receiving credit for the assist. The score would stay 1-0 in favor of the Tigers for the remainder of the first quarter. Senior Attackman Steele Burkett would find the back of the net early in the second quarter on a Walker Thompson assist pushing the Tiger’s lead to 2-0. The Tigers would dominate the early minutes of the second quarter and find the net once again as sophomore attackman Walker Thompson tallied a goal off of a feeding pass from midfielder Tobi Bamisaiye for a 3-0 lead. LCA would strike back soon after on a defensive miscue by the Tigers whose lead was now cut to 3-1. Senior Midfield Tobi Bamisaiye would score the Tigers fourth goal with Walker Thompson adding an assist to his point total. The Tigers would now lead 4-1. The Bulldogs of LCA would take advantage of a man up opportunity as they found their second and last goal of the first half making the score 4-2.
The second half of play would draw even until a lone goal by Steele Burkett found the back of the net for his second goal of the day on a feed from Walker Thompson. With the Tigers lead at 5-2 to start the fourth and final quarter the Tigers continued to press the attack as Steele Burkett would again find the net for a third time with Senior Noah Richard receiving credit for the assist. Within minutes of his third goal, Burkett would convert a Thompson pass in to a score to give the tigers a 7-2 lead. Burkett would return the favor to Thompson in the final minutes of play as Thompson tallied his second goal of the day to close out the scoring at 8-2.
On the defensive side of the ball goalie Adrian Roman had another great game as he recorded 13 saves on the day. Defenders Nicholas Foster and Russell Ferguson played solid defense while Ryan Brown brought the physical element to the LCA attackers. Midfielders Zdenek Sindelar and Stephen Chain did a solid job at recovering the loose balls and turning them down into offensive possessions.
The Tigers will Travel to Covenant School next week in a VIC/VISAA match-up. The Tiger overall record stands at 4-2 now.
