DAHLONEGA – The University of North Georgia (UNG) men's soccer team battled to a 2-2 draw against No. 21 Lander in the 2025 Peach Belt Conference opener at the UNG Soccer Field at Lynn Cottrell Park Wednesday night.
Facing a ranked Bearcats team for the sixth time since 2014, UNG was in search of its first such win over Lander as a ranked opponent.
The Bearcats hunkered down defensively against the potent Nighthawk offensive attack in the first half.
While UNG primarily controlled possession in the first 45 minutes, Lander's staunch defense did not present many scoring opportunities. So, the Nighthawks had to manufacture their chances.
In the 39th minute, seniors
DJ Shin and
Max Garnett did just that.
Having just checked into the game, Shin was full of energy and expended it with an impressive slide tackle near UNG's attacking third. He snatched the ball away from a Bearcat, popped up, gained possession and passed across the field to Garnett.
With just a few yards of space between himself and defender, Garnett refused any thoughts of a typical smart play and decided to go for broke. From approximately 45 yards away, he ripped a shot towards the goal.
Fans in attendance celebrating Fall Spirit Night began to rise from their seats as the ball appeared to be on target.
A standard soccer net stands eight feet tall. Garnett's show screamed roughly seven feet off the ground and held there on an almost perfectly straight line.
Lander goalkeeper Conrad Knight could essentially only watch as he reached an arm up in an effort to stop the ball. It was hopeless.
Garnett's shot
ripped into the back of the net as the crowd roared. He jogged towards the stands and celebrated in front of the crowd as his teammates cheered him, some of them still retrieving their jaws from the floor.
The goal marked Garnett's first since Oct. 11, 2023. The defender had missed all of the 2024 season with an injury after tallying six goals and six assists from the back line in 2023 before being named to the PBC All-Conference Second Team.
Garnett's punctuated return to the score sheet put the Nighthawks ahead 1-0. They took that lead into the locker room at halftime.
In the second half, Lander equalized with a penalty kick goal in the 51st minute from Christian Hatley.
With the game knotted at 1-1, the two teams spent the next 37 agonizing minutes in a heated battle to take the lead.
A questionable call in the midst of a save from UNG keeper
Aleksa Lukic ended that heated battle when the Bearcats were awarded another penalty kick in the 86th minute.
Much to the dismay of the Nighthawk players, coaches and fans, Hatley scored again to put Lander ahead 2-1 with 4:57 remaining in the game.
As the clock dwindled towards the 90-minute mark, UNG was running out of options. The Nighthawks had to go all in on scoring an equalizer in the final stages of the game. They got that chance in the 89th minute when Garnett was tripped up in the box after attempting to retrieve a long ball. The referee blew his whistle and signaled for a penalty.
Senior defender
Vukašin Lukovic – who was already 2-for-2 on penalty kicks this season – was selected to take the attempt. Both of Lukovic's PK goals came in the season opener against No. 9 Coker, an eventual 3-3 draw. In each of those goals, Lukovic went left to beat the keeper. On Wednesday, he zagged.
The strong-footed, Serbian defender drilled the ball
into the right side of the net. Knight dove left and gave up halfway once he saw the result.
With only 51.3 seconds on the clock, neither team was able to find a last-minute game winner.
Lander now sits at 0-0-4 on the season while UNG holds a 1-2-3 record as both teams open the conference schedule at 0-0-1.
The Nighthawks will look to grab their first conference win of the season on Saturday, Sep. 20 when they head to Americus, Ga. to take on Georgia Southwestern at 7 p.m.
