THOMASVILLE, Ga. – After weather pushed the game to Tuesday, The Thomas Night Hawks finally took the pitch against the Middle Georgia State Knights.
The Knights got on the board first as Moos Zwerts delivered a strike into the net in the eighth minute.
The Night Hawks had an opportunity on a free kick, but Ethan Moore's shot was saved by goalkeeper Gracen Vanglider.
On a breakaway, it looked as if Middle Georgia was to go up by two. As Thomas goalkeeper Damien Fortin made a nice save on the first shot, but the deflection went to Zwerts whose shot bounced right off the post.
Searching for the equalizer, Jaxson French delivered a great ball in between two Knight defenders to Danny Mauldin and the Freshman nailed the shot for his first career goal in the 25th minute.
Then, while blocking another Middle Georgia shot, Fortin got tangled up with the attacker, causing a yellow for the goalkeeper and a penalty kick which hit the back of the net, giving the lead back to the Knights.
However, the Night Hawks were not done yet. In the 39th minute, a shot from Camilo Penafiel was deflected by the goalkeeper but Owen Spier was in the right place at the right time as he took the deflection and tapped the ball in for the equalizer.
Then, as time began to tick down in the first half, a Thomas corner opened the door to take the lead. On the corner was Diego Saenz, whose pass was deflected over to Pablo Novoa who got it to Aaron Sindhar for the header to put the Night Hawks ahead.
Middle Georgia almost responded immediately as a shot from Shayne Osbourne was blocked by the Thomas defense. Who went into the half carrying the one-point lead.
In the 60th minute, The Knights were knocking on the door for an equalizer on a corner, however, the shot was deflected by the Night Hawks giving Middle Georgia another opportunity.
The second corner would be cleared out by Sindhar. As that ended up being the Knights only chance to tie the game as Thomas held on to win.
The Night Hawks will be on the road this weekend as they travel to face Webber International on Saturday, August 30th at 3:00p.m.
