Through 89 minutes of play against Navy on Sunday afternoon, men’s soccer’s dominant offensive effort had gone unrewarded.
Despite outshooting the Midshipmen 16–0 and spending the majority of the match in its opponent’s defensive third, GW found itself knotted in a scoreless tie.
But with just more than 10 seconds remaining, the Colonials were awarded their 12th corner kick of the day. Sophomore midfielder Alastair Berry wasted no time delivering the ball into a frantic scrum in front of the net.
The hurried set piece found the head of Dylan Lightbourn on the near post, who snuck the game winner past Navy’s goalkeeper to lift GW to a 1–0 victory with only four seconds to spare.
“Coach is always telling me to get near post, and I just saw that ball coming in from Alastair, it was a great cross and I knew I was going to get my head on it,” the sophomore forward said. “The whole day we were getting great service into the box — we just couldn’t finish — but luckily I just found the right spot at the right time.”
The bounceback win comes four days after the Colonials (2–1–2) dropped a 2–0 decision at Loyola (Md.), the team’s first and only loss so far this season.
Head coach Craig Jones was pleased with his squad’s response during Sunday’s matinee.
“Today I thought was our best performance overall over 90 minutes possession-wise. Sometimes you need a little bit of luck — well not so much luck, it was a great header actually,” Jones said. “We’re creating [scoring chances], we just haven’t been scoring, and today we got one.”
And while GW’s offense has not been overtly high-powered — having combined for just three goals over its first four games — its defensive unit has continually kept them in games.
Starting goalkeeper Thor Arne Hofs had a quiet outing as Navy (1–2–1) recorded zero shots on net but was still tabbed for his second shutout of the 2016 campaign.
“Defensively, we shut them down,” Lightbourn said. “Their counterattack, that’s their forte honestly, and we did a really great job of just not allowing them to turn and come at us. We definitely improved from last game.”
GW’s attack, however, caused problems for the Midshipmen’s backs all afternoon.
The Colonials’ best chance of the first half came in the 38th minute from senior midfielder Garrett Heine. On a free kick just outside of the box, Heine fired a bullet to the top-left corner of the net but was denied by an impressive save over the crossbar.
A flurry of chances came late in the second half off a number of good services into Navy’s 18. Junior midfielder Koby Osei-Wusu, senior defender Ben Ogedegbe and freshman midfielder Colin Anderson all came within inches of finding the go-ahead goal.
The one that finally came marked just the second goal of Lightbourn’s collegiate career. On Sunday, the 6-foot-3-inch sophomore played 65 minutes up top.
“Obviously he didn’t see much of the field last year but coming in for preseason he looked good, he worked hard over the summer,” Jones said. “As a forward you’ve got to be at the right place at the right time and he’s done that twice this season so far. I thought today his movement was good, he held the ball up, he was strong — he was just a handful. So he deserved that goal.”
Lightbourn’s game-winner also handed him a new title: leading scorer.
His two goals this season now pace all Colonials, while Heine and junior midfielder Oliver Curry trail close behind with one goal apiece.
“It feels kind of crazy honestly,” Lightbourn said. “I was just hoping to get good playing time this year but to think I’m the leading goal-scorer on a team with so many great players — like Garrett, who was one of the leading scorers in the conference [last season] — it’s just surreal.”
The Colonials will try to pick up their third non-conference win Tuesday when they travel to take on ACC foe Wake Forest at 7 p.m.
Watch the game-winning goal here:
