Clayton State Wins PBC Men's Soccer Championship

MORROW, Ga. - October 27, 2007 – Another banner is going up for the Clayton State Laker men’s soccer team on the back fence at Laker Field.

Playing their final regular season game of the 2007 regular season, Clayton State had to battle tooth-and-nail to a 1-1 stalemate against visiting Francis Marion at Laker Field on Saturday night. However, the tie, coupled with USC-Aiken’s 3-1 defeat at UNC-Pembroke, gives Clayton State the outright Peach Belt Conference championship and the No. 1 seed in next weekend’s PBC Tournament at Laker Field.

It’s the third straight regular season Peach Belt championship for 13th-ranked Clayton State, which is now 12-3-2 overall and 4-1-1 in the conference. It’s the fourth overall regular season crown for the Lakers.

Scrappy Francis Marion frustrated the Lakers all game long, packing all 11 players deep on defense and not allowing Clayton State and good shot at the goal. In fact, the final statistics were one-sided as Clayton State dominated in shots 31-4.

However, Francis Marion cashed in on one of those four shots in the 60th minute when Kyle Clinton scored off a corner kick to give the Patriots a 1-0 lead.

However, Clayton State got the needed equalizer with five minutes remaining. Goalkeeper Billy Hale drop kicked a great incoming pass to B.J. Livingston at the top of the penalty box. Livingston then headed the ball to left and Tonny Madegwa punched home the goal past Patriot goalkeeper Clark Richeson.

Neither team threatened much in the overtime until the final seconds when Laker freshman Jamal Geathers broke through the Francis Marion defense and had a clear shot at the game-winner. However, his shot hit the crossbar with 12 seconds remaining.

Hale and Janiel Simon combined for two saves for Clayton State, while Richeson was superb, recording 13 saves for Francis Marion (5-11-1, 1-4-1).

Clayton State draws a bye as the number one seed to Friday’s semifinal round, in which they will play host to the winner of the North Georgia-USC-Aiken quarterfinal winner.