Box Score Game Box (PDF)
Jacksonville, Fla. – Tevin Gage scored in the 79th minute to give the Spartans a 4-1 lead and the USC Upstate men's soccer team held off a late North Florida rally to take a 4-3 victory in A-Sun men's soccer action Saturday afternoon at Patton Park.
Upstate secured its first win of the season and its first A-Sun of the year as well, improving to 1-3-1 in the A-Sun with four points in the conference standings. The win keeps the Spartans in the hunt for a spot in next month's A-Sun Tournament. It marked the third straight victory in the series for Upstate over the Ospreys. The Spartans return home to face Lipscomb next Saturday at 7:00 p.m. at County University Soccer Stadium.
"We are really happy to get the win," said Upstate head coach Greg Hooks. "The players have hung in there and been resilient. Although I wasn't pleased to give up two goals at the end, we were able to get the win, so I'm not going to complain. We got three points and have a chance to get in the A-Sun Tournament. That is a big positive for us as we get ready to close out the season with three conference games left."
To say the match saw two starkly different halves is an understatement. The teams combined for eight shots in the first half with neither team finding the back of the net. North Florida held a 5-3 lead but did not put any shots on goal. Upstate placed two of its shots on goal, but Osprey keeper Brad Sienkiewicz made two saves to send the game into halftime at 0-0.
Upstate did have a pair of opportunities in the first half. The first came when Dave Musambi managed to get behind the defense and was one-on-one with Sienkiewicz. However, his shot was saved. The second came when Taylor Scalera's shot hit the post and was covered up by Sienkiewicz.
The second half, though, saw a lot of fireworks as the teams combined for seven goals and 19 shots. Despite North Florida holding a 12-7 advantage in shots in the half, the Spartans made the most of their opportunities to take the 4-3 win.
North Florida got on the scoreboard first when Upstate was called for a foul in the box and Jean Rivaroli converted the penalty kick in the 48th minute. Upstate, though, hung tough and dominated play over the next 35 minutes, scoring four straight goals to open a commanding 4-1 lead late in the half.
Julian Feneberg got things going for Upstate, placing his header off a corner kick into the back of the net for the equalizer in the 55th minute. Adam Hemati assisted on the goal. Feneberg's goal opened the floodgates for the Spartans.
Less than four minutes later, Feneberg and Scalera played a couple of quick passes in the box to an open Rinaldi Alphonse who put the shot into an open net in the 59th minute to give the Spartans a 2-1 lead. Upstate made it a 3-1 advantage when Michael Rankin-Byrne came away with a steal deep in North Florida territory and put the ball into the right side of the net from 12 yards out in the 67th minute.
After playing more than 12 minutes without a goal, Gage came away with a crucial score, though at the time it looked like it was just icing on the cake. He took the ball down the right side, cut in and put the shot away from 10 yards out to give the Spartans a commanding 4-1 lead in the 80th minute.
With under 10 minutes left to play and down three goals, North Florida continued to battle and cut the Upstate lead to 4-2 in the 84th minute. Rivaroli played a through pass to Drew Spragg who placed a shot over a diving Upstate keeper Hassan El-Haddad. Less than two minutes later, Rivaroli took a pass from Sean Young in the middle of the box and placed a shot low and to the right into the net to get the Ospreys within a goal, 4-3, in the 86th minute.
North Florida got off one more shot in the match, just a minute after it scored its third goal, but El-Haddad made the save to preserve the win for Upstate. El-Haddad finished with four saves, all coming in the second half.
Upstate continued its trend of second half production in the match. The Spartans have not scored in the first half this season, scoring all 11 of their goals after halftime.
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