GAFFNEY, S.C. – An offensive explosion that included five first half goals was too much for Clayton State (2-11, 0-5 PBC) to overcome as they dropped an 8-2 decision at No. 13 Limestone (11-1, 7-0 CC) in an NCAA Division II men's soccer game on Saturday, October 15.
 
Right out of the gate, the Saints scored early and often as Mats Kaiser took a pass from Sebastian Gregersen and drove it into the left side of the goal for a 1-0 lead just 4:29 in. Louis Robles would follow just under 10 minutes later as he collected a rebound and made it a two-goal margin with 14:00 gone by.
 
Limestone would continue the rapid fire as Gui Machado secured a loose ball in front of the net at 21:04 before scoring his 12^th goal of the season. Robles would get his second off an assist from Jorge Salvat at 28:02 and would be followed by Corentin Guegan, with a Machado assist, at 31:09.
 
Trailing 5-0, the Lakers found some offense off of a corner kick when freshman midfielder Shams Elakabawy (Amsterdam, Holland) came away with a rebound in front of the net and put it in for his first goal of the season at 36:22. The teams would then take that 5-1 margin into the half.
 
In the second half, LC would come out firing again, this time as Salvat had a breakaway down the left side and then beat the keeper one-on-one just 1:16 into the half. Machado would follow at 62:33 when he took a pass from Conor Young and put in just off of the far post to make it 7-1.
 
Clayton State would get on the board again with 84:07 to play as a mishandled ball in front of Limestone's net resulted in an own goal to cut it to 7-2. Gregersen would then cap off the scoring as he took a pass from Nestor Aguilar and banged it off of the keeper and into the net to reach the final margin of 8-2.
 
Elakabawy delivered the Lakers lone goal of the night as they were limited to just three shots. Graduate forward Iain Smith (Suwanee, Ga.) and junior defender Karl Addie Jr. (Jonesboro, Ga.) had the others. In net, freshman goalkeeper Leuri Fraire (Dalton, Ga.) played all 90 minutes, surrendering eight goals while making five saves. He falls to 2-7 on the year.
 
For Limestone, Machado finished with a pair of goals and an assist while Robles had two scores. Gregersen and Salvat each had a goal and an assist with Kaiser and Guegan notching solo scores. Young chipped in with an assist to round out the offense.
 
Greg Purvis started in goal for the Saints and played the first half, allowing just the one goal, and improves to 11-1. Thomas Osborne logged 38:17 of scoreless action with no saves and Connor Washer played the final 6:43, surrendering one goal with no saves.
 
Clayton State resumes their PBC schedule when they travel to Young Harris, Georgia on Tuesday, October 18. Originally scheduled for October 19, the game was moved up to accommodate Young Harris rescheduling games as a result of Hurricane Matthew. Game time will still be at approximately 7:30 p.m. following the women's contest.