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Spartanburg, S.C. – The USC Upstate men's soccer team ended its preseason without a loss after taking a 3-0 victory over Wilmington Wednesday night at County University. The exhibition win comes eight days after the Spartans opened the preseason with a 6-3 victory over Spartanburg Methodist in a scrimmage on Aug. 14.
Michael Rankin-Byrne (Kingston, Ontario), Tevin Gage (Valrico, Fla.) and Spencer Woodstock (Miami, Fla.) scored Upstate's goals, all three coming in the second half. Upstate will open the regular season on the road Friday night at Clemson. The game time is set for 7:00 pm at historic Riggs Field.
"I thought we did well. We got a chance to play all of our field players. I thought we actually got better as the match went on against them. They are a very good Division II team and I thought we did well. It's a long season and we have a ways to go, but I thought we have done some good things through our first two preseason games," said Upstate head coach Greg Hooks.
Upstate dictated the pace of play in the first half. The Spartans held a large 8-1 lead in shots over the Wildcats. However, Upstate could not push a goal across as the teams went to the intermission with a scoreless tie. Upstate had a couple of solid scoring opportunities off of set pieces and header opportunities, but Wilmington was able to keep the Spartans off the scoreboard with goalkeeper Spyros Stergiotis making two saves.
The first half was certainly physical with the teams combining for 13 fouls. Wilmington was whistled for two yellow cards.
Wilmington pressured Upstate early in the second half, with Upstate goalkeeper Dani Alvarado (Leander, Texas) making one save in the first five minutes of the period.
Upstate cracked the scoreboard in the 52nd-minute when Rankin-Byrne found the back of the net off an assist from Gage. Gage took the ball down the right side of the field and played the ball into the middle where Rankin-Byrne gained control and fired a shot into the right side of the net.
Upstate made it a 2-0 lead in the 69th-minute when Gage found the back of the net from 22 yards. Marvin Schmiege (Berlin, Germany) played a ball out to Gage from the middle. Gage took the pass, took two touches, then fired a shot from the outer right corner of the box and into the top of the goal.
Upstate finished the scoring in the 81st-minute when Dustin Bailey (Mt. Pleasant, S.C.) played a nice through ball to the middle of the box where Woodstock was waiting. Woodstock took one touch and fired a shot into the goal for an Upstate 3-0 lead.
Upstate owned the advantage in shots, 15-7, for the match.
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