With goals at a premium in soccer, creating as many chances as possible is crucial to increasing your odds of scoring. 

South Georgia Tormenta was able to do that Saturday night, with 18 shots, ten of them on goal, and seven corner kicks won, but were only able to find the back of the net once in their 1-1 draw against Lexington. 

Five minutes into the match, Andrew Akindele intercepted a Lexington pass near midfield and was able to get behind the defense into the penalty box where he was fouled, setting up a penalty kick for Kazaiah Sterling.

Sterling, who converted a penalty kick last week against Greenville, used his slow, deliberate walk up to the ball to try to read Lexington goalkeeper Amal Knight and then fire off his shot. 

“I just can’t wait to score it, that’s what I’m thinking” Sterling said after the match. “I’m reading him and if (I can’t), then I know which way I’m going to go.”

Lexington (2-5-4, 10 points) would respond with pressure and was able to create three corner kicks in the first 15 minutes of play. On the third corner, the ball found the head of Cesar Murillo, Jr. who headed it to Ates Diouf about eight yards on the right side of the box.  

Diouf volleyed the ball to the far left corner beyond the outstretched arms of Tormenta goalkeeper TJ Bush to equalize. 

Tormenta (4-5-3, 15 points), who had two key defenders in Preston Kilwien and Nick Akoto out with injury Saturday, started a lineup that lacked the height, especially in the back, which South Georgia Head Coach Ian Cameron said could be a problem on set pieces.

“Corner kicks have been a weakness for us,” Cameron said. “We knew tonight’s lineup wasn’t the biggest with Authur (Bosua) not starting, it makes you smaller. Nick (Akoto) gives us height (but couldn’t play due to injury.) So that’s disappointing.”

It looked as though Tormenta was going to respond just as quickly when Jackson Khoury was able to find some space about 15 yards out, but his shot was deflected by a Lexington defender. 

In the 35th minute Mukwelle Akale lined up for a free kick from 30 yards out. His left-footed strike was low, forcing a diving save by Knight for a corner kick, but Tormenta wasn’t able to convert.

Just before the half, Tormenta again looked to take the lead. Midfielder Chris Heckenburg stole the ball near midfield and raced up towards the Lexington goal. He was able to find Khoury on the left whose low shot ricocheted off Knight to keep the game tied at one.

“The lesson we’ve got to learn is we’ve got to take some of these earlier chances and put the game to bed,” Cameron said. “And when you don’t, you leave it in the hands of the soccer gods and, to be honest, it could have went both ways tonight.”

Tormenta began the second half with more pressure, including a shot from Akale on the right side of the box that went just wide of the goal a little more than four minutes into the half.

Lexington was able to right the ship and created several opportunities about 15 minutes into the second half. In the 59th minute, a questionable handball call gave Lexington a free kick just outside the penalty box. 

Tate Robinson’s right-footed shot curled around the wall and missed the back post by about a foot. 

Five minutes later, Lexington’s Jalen James was able to work his way down the left sideline before cutting back to the middle. He was able to get a shot off but Tormenta’s Collin Mocyunas was able to get in front of the shot to clear away the danger.

Tormenta then found Akale streaking down the right sideline. After outracing the defenders to the endline, he was able to cut the ball back to an open John Murphy Jr. 

Murphy Jr.’s shot was heading toward goal when Knight was able to dive and get a hand on it, pushing it away for a corner kick and preserving the tie.

Lexington nearly took the lead in the 70th minute when Tate Robertson was able to get just enough space to get a shot off from 15 yards out on the left side. His shot sent Bush diving, but it was deflected on its way towards goal. A Tormenta defender was able to slide and clear the ball away before it passed over the goalline to keep the score level at one.

Murphy Jr. had a couple of opportunities from 20 yards out in the final 10 minutes, but was unable to get one past the Lexington defense.

“I thought we started the second half well and were creating chances on their goal, but unfortunately we never put one away and then it got a bit open and it was a track meet for the last 15 minutes or so,” Murphy Jr. said. 

He expects the team’s offense to start clicking on all cylinders soon.

“We have a lot of really dangerous attacking players and once they find their groove, I feel like they could take off,” he said. “It’s not for lack of effort so I think we’ll definitely get there.”

On the night, Tormenta outshot Lexington 18-15, and had more shots on target by a 10-3 margin. They also had more of the possession and earned seven corner kicks as compared to just four for Lexington.

“I think we had better chances in the game,” Cameron said, “but they had chances and it was end to end stuff and that’s where we’ve got to show some maturity and learn how to manage the tempo of the game and not allow it to get so transitional.”

Cameron said the key to scoring is to continue to create opportunities and being in the right place at the right time. He was pleased with his team’s performance and creating so many opportunities.

“I’d much rather be a team that’s creating chances and missing them than the team that wasn’t creating chances,” he said. “In the last four games (in which Tormenta has one loss and three draws), we’ve created a lot of chances. We should be better off in what we’ve scored in the last four games, but the players are there and so we’ve got to keep plugging away at it.”

Tormenta will host Northern Colorado on Saturday in a rematch of an earlier game that saw the Hailstorm defeat Tormenta 3-0 in April.

“I think we all know Northern Colorado beat us at home earlier in the year, so the expectation is three points, no matter what,” Murphy Jr. said.