Lee University's Henry Moyo will likely never forget his 100th college coaching win. The 3-2 decision over visiting Lambuth University at the Lee Soccer Field on a steamy Wednesday evening did not come easy.

The Eagles from Jackson, Tenn came to play and had high hopes for an upset over a Lee team that is ranked sixth in the NAIA preseason national poll. Those hopes grew even higher when two-time NAIA All-American Ricardo Pierre-Louis picked up a second yellow card in the 23rd minute and the Flames were forced to play a man short for almost two-thirds of the hotly contested battle.

Pierre-Louis drew the second card for celebrating after scoring the game's first goal. Phil Drummond claimed the assist. At first, Pierre-Louis' ejection seemed to spark the Flames. With less than a minute remaining in the first half, newcomer Stanley Magwano picked up an assist from senior Stanley Nyazamba and gave Lee what looked like a comfortable 2-0 margin at the break.

It appeared the visitors suddenly realized during the 15-minute halftime, that the Flames were playing a man short and their All-American scorer was out of action.

Lambuth's Wade Wadsorth made it a 2-1 game in the 56th minute and he came right back in the 59th minute to tie the contest at 2-2. Chris Harrington and J.W. Hunt got credit for the assists.

Nyazamba took over the offensive leadership role and a huge run proved to be just enough to allow the Flames to salvage the hard-fought win.

Ivan Heredia collected an excellent cross from Nyazamba and tipped the shot past Lambuth keeper Brenton Saylor in the 61st minute. Coach Moyo ordered his troops to play it safe the rest of the game.

"We had to lay back," said the coach, who admitted he was having flashbacks to last season's defeat to the University of the Cumberlands. "Lambuth is a much improved team and they battled us. Our pre-season training was a key. With Ricardo out, we had to ask our guys to put forth the extra effort."

Magwano, a forward from England, drew the praise of his coach. He also said the play of Nyazamba, Jo Connor and Nick Odeny, Chris Hennessey and Aldo Heredia was a key in the season-opening win.

Sophomore keeper Michael Simmons also stood up to a demanding test.  Lambuth took 12 shots and five were on target. The final tally showed Simmons with five saves. The biggest save came in the final seconds when the Eagles were pressing hard to tie the game. On the other end, Saylor defended well for Lambuth. Lee fired 16 shots and nine were on goal. Saylor had five saves.

Luidgi Beauzile, Lee's starting keeper last season, is out for at least two weeks with a shoulder injury. "We will face Southern Poly on Saturday with both Luidgi and Pierre-Louis out of action," pointed out Moyo. "Southern Poly is a new program in our conference, but they opened the season with a pretty impressive win."

Saturday's SSAC action at the Lee soccer field is slated to get underway at 7 p.m.