Furman, UNCG Advance to Men's Soccer Semis

No. 3 Furman 1, No. 6 VMI 0

GREENVILLE, S.C. – Freshman Kyle McLagan headed in a Tony Santibanez free kick in the 63rd minute to give Furman a 1-0 lead as the third-seeded Paladins held on to eliminate No. 6 seed VMI and advance to the semifinal round of the Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Championship on Saturday night on Seagraves Field at Stone Stadium.

The Paladins, 10-5-3 on the year, will face second-seeded Wofford in Thursday’s semifinal round at UNCG Stadium in Greensboro, N.C. Kickoff is set for 5 p.m. The contest will air live on the SoCon Digital Network.

Furman dominated possession for most of the night and finally broke the scoreless tie at the 62:28 mark on McLagan’s first collegiate goal. The Paladins drew a foul about 5 yards off of the end line on the right side. Santibanez stepped up to hit an in-swinging free kick with his left foot that McLagan rose to head in at the back post.

VMI turned up the pressure on Furman in the final 15 minutes as it pushed for an equalizer. The Keydets earned three straight corner kicks in the 76th minute and Chris Spates forced Furman’s Sven Lissek to push a shot wide off the first set piece.

At the 86:46 mark, VMI’s Hunter Morgan fired a dipping shot from the right wing that carried over Lissek’s head before banging off of the crossbar. Andrew Hicks collected the loose ball on the left side of the box, but his shot was blocked.

Furman’s Bobby Edet was taken down on a counterattack moments later that resulted in a caution, and VMI’s Hicks received his second yellow card to send the Keydets down the 10 men with 58 seconds left.

Lissek finished with one save to earn the shutout for the Paladins. It marked his ninth clean sheet of the season. Alex Guerra turned away four shots for the Keydets.

Furman compiled a 20-5 edge in shots and 5-1 advantage in shots on goal. The Paladins looked like they might take the early lead in the fifth minute when Edet’s shot from the left side slammed off the crossbar, but Eli Pinner’s follow-up header was smothered by Guerra.

McLagan forced Guerra into a save off of a header late in the first half and the VMI goalkeeper stopped shots from Adrain McInnis and Pinner in the opening minutes of the second half before McLagan’s header broke the tie.

The winner of Thursday’s game will advance to face either UNCG or Mercer in Saturday’s SoCon championship match.

 

No. 4 UNCG 2, No. 5 ETSU 1 (2OT)

GREENSBORO, N.C. – For the second time in less than two weeks, junior forward Jacques Francois scored a golden goal to lead the fourth-seeded UNCG men’s soccer team to a 2-1 double-overtime victory over fifth-seeded and visiting ETSU on Saturday night in the Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Championship quarterfinals at the UNCG Soccer Stadium.

The victory assures the Spartans of their 13th SoCon tournament semifinal appearance in program history. UNCG is hosting the SoCon tournament semifinals and finals next week. Semifinal No. 1 will feature second-seeded Wofford against third-seeded Furman at 5 p.m. Thursday, while the Spartans will face top-seeded Mercer in the second semifinal at 7:30 p.m. Both matches will appear live on the SoCon Digital Network. The SoCon tournament final is slated for next Saturday at 7 p.m. at the UNCG Soccer Stadium and will air live on ESPN3.

Francois notched the game-winning goal in the 104th minute of play this time after scoring the clincher against the Bucs in the 93rd minute in Johnson City, Tenn., in the second-to-last regular season game, a victory that secured the Spartans Saturday night’s home game. He scored both goals Saturday night against the Bucs and all three of his tallies this year have come at the expense of ETSU.

UNCG looked like it had scored the game’s first goal in the 74th minute of action off a corner kick. Senior Aaron Reifschneider sent a ball to the top of the 18-yard box, where junior Lukas Zarges was all alone. Zarges teed up a shot from 18 yards out that found its way through traffic and beat ETSU keeper Daniel Adelman for the apparent goal. During the celebration, the referees convened and eventually waved off the goal due to a UNCG player in an offside position.

ETSU was rejuvenated by the referees’ call and took the game’s first lead at 1-0 in the 76th minute of play. Joao Ramalho was the culprit as he got the ball on the left-hand side and made a couple of UNCG defenders miss. He ripped a shot from just inside the 18-yard box toward the bottom far corner past the diving William Pyle for his team-leading 11th goal of the season. The goal was the first of the year for ETSU against the Spartans and Pyle, snapped a shutout streak in the series of 258:28.

The Spartans showed their mettle, though, coming down the field and immediately tying the game just 24 seconds later. After the restart following the goal, Reifschneider sent a long ball to the top of the 18-yard box. An ETSU defender got his head on the ball but it sprung Francois into space. He brought the ball down and stuck a shot through a defender’s legs past Adelman for his second goal of the season, tying the game at 1-1.

The teams headed into the first overtime without much drama and the Spartans had the game’s lone chance in the first extra session. In the 97th minute, freshman Moises Gonzalez got behind the ETSU defense but his shot sailed just wide of the goal.

The Spartans took home the victory in the 104th minute of action, taking advantage of a long throw-in. Senior Justin Jones sent the ball into the box where it was initially cleared. Christopher Reingen chipped it back into the 18-yard box, where freshman defender Eric Gunnarsson brought the pass down and fired a shot on goal. Adelman made the initial save but the rebound popped out in front of the goal, where Francois beat three ETSU defenders to the ball and buried it into the open net, sending the Spartans onto the field with the golden goal victory.

The Spartans finished the night with a 19-14 edge in shots and came back to hold a 10-9 advantage in corner kicks in the hotly contested affair. Pyle picked up his third victory of the season against ETSU as he made five saves on the night, while Adelman was saddled with the loss despite making seven saves.