Lexington SC (1-1-2, 4 points, 6th in USL1) will be looking to get some much-needed points and end their 3 matches losing streak this weekend as they travel down to Statesboro to take on South Georgia Tormenta (1-1-2, 4 points, 5th in USL1) at Tormenta Stadium with kickoff set for 7:30 pm EST. The game will mark Lexington’s 2nd time down in Statesboro and will be LSC’s 2nd league away match of the season for the 4th game in this young matchup’s history.

Last season, Lexington split the series with Tormenta, winning the club’s first-ever match over the South Georgia side in April, then drawing down in Statesboro in June before the 1-5 drumming Tormenta gave Lexington in July to split the season series.

Heading into this matchup, Lexington and Tormenta are polar opposites. In the preseason, Tormenta was primarily viewed as a rebuilding team and set to have a rough season ahead. Still, instead, they have started quite strong, winning 3 out of their 6 matches and only losing to Fuego in their opener and then One Knoxville this past weekend. On the other hand, Lexington has many people swirling around, seeing if the squad is not meant to live up to the hype that many (including myself) had created about the side in the preseason after losing their last 3 matches – how Coach Powell’s squad plays in this one will be the deciding factor for me on if this team may or may not be pretenders or contenders this season.

We saw the potential this squad had for the majority of the last match against Greenville until the collapse after the very questionable double yellow given to Amal Knight that saw the keeper be set off in the 80th minute, causing a massive delay that led to the 14 minutes of stoppage time added on, allowing Greenville to snatch 3 points away from Lexington.

The positives of this match were that Lexington’s attacking, in particular, appeared to be finding a groove and had the potential to reach that deadly level that I and so many others expected out of them. I suspect we will see more of the aggressive attacking style we saw for most of the match against Greenville on Saturday night.
However, the critical question around this match is who will be starting in goal, with Knight having to serve a 1-match suspension. Campuzano has been between the pipes for 6 out of the 9 goals that have been scored against Lexington this season, with a mistake of challenging the throw-in, letting Greenville take the lead and win the match. Hopefully, we will see Austin Causey’s return in net for this matchup against Tormenta, as he did play them well in his appearance against them last season, only allowing a penalty goal to secure the 2-1 win.

Road demons have haunted Lexington in its very short time as a club, but the season is still young, and the club still has plenty of time to bounce back from this rough stretch of matches. Still, that time is fading by the week, and in this match against a Tormenta side, I am unable to tell how good they are as they appear to meet the levels of their opponent outside of their most recent match against Savannah Clovers, where they won 4-0 on Wednesday night. Given all that is up in the air and unknown about both sides, I have no idea what to expect from this one.

Players to Watch

Jayden Onen – Onen has been one of the few Lexington players who has hit the ground running since his first appearance for the squad and appears to be the heart of the attack, at least for now. If Onen can get it going against Tormenta, the attack may be able to get South Georgia on the backfoot all night.

Ford Parker – Parker won the first 3 Saves of the Week this year for USL1 and has kept Tormenta in matches. He averages 5 saves a game and a whopping 80% save percentage while allowing only 1.3 goals. He will be the man to beat in this one for Lexington.

Final Score Predictions
Tormenta 2 – 2 Lexington