SPARTANBURG, S.C. – USC Upstate men's soccer suffered a shutout against Furman Wednesday night at County University Soccer Stadium. The Spartans outshot the Paladins 10-8, each with four shots on goal, but could not get anything past the Furman keeper as Upstate fell 2-0 and dropped to 1-2 (1-0 BSC) on the season.
Upstate did a great job early of shutting down the Furman attack, and there were no true offensive opportunities in the game until a Spartan corner kick at the 16:13 mark followed by a shot from Mario Arrocha 46 seconds later that Furman goalie Ben Hale barely got a hand on, tipping the ball over the goal.
The Paladins answered with a shot of their own about a minute later, but the shot went way wide.
Arrocha aggressively led the Spartan attack on the night as he accounted for half of Upstate's shots in the game, two of them being on goal. He beat his man into the box around the 23-minute mark and Furman was able to send the strayed ball away, but Arrocha battled back with another shot that went wide.
Spartan keeper Felipe Baeza made a fantastic save on Furman's first real scoring chance at the 28:26 mark to keep a clean sheet up to that point in the game.
With around six minutes to go in the first half, Pol Monells seemed to be setting up a perfect scoring opportunity as he carried the ball down the field to Jeremy Montero who sent a cross pass back to Monells in the box, but the two couldn't connect for the shot.
About a minute later, Furman struck first as Shaun-Chris Joash netted a goal from Sam Miller in the 40th minute to put the Paladins up 1-0 going into halftime.
Upstate was awarded a corner kick early in the second half, but unfortunately soon after, the Paladins would double their lead as Jake Rained found the back of the net in the 50th minute.
Brody Williams threw the ball on target at 56:09, but it turned out to be an easy stop for Hale. The Spartans got another good offensive opportunity off a corner kick four minutes later, but could not convert.
The Spartans did not let up in the game as they continued to apply offensive pressure to Furman with a shot on goal from Monells at the 73:59 mark followed by another shot from Arrocha a bit later.
Baeza came up with a huge save off a Furman free kick in the 82nd minute to hold Upstate's deficit to 2-0. Arrocha stayed aggressive as he put a shot on Hale with a little less than five minutes to go, and had another shot deflected just a minute later. Paul Bobai sailed a shot high in the closing seconds as Upstate finished hard.
Scoring Summary
40' – Furman – Shaun-Chris Joash (Assisted by Sam Miller)
50' – Furman – Jake Raine (Assisted by Shaun-Chris Joash)
Card Summary
7' – Upstate – Pascal Corvino (Yellow)
29' – Furman – Shaun-Chris Joash (Yellow)
41' – Upstate – Nico Tallarico (Yellow)
71' – Upstate – Pol Monells (Yellow)
79' – Upstate – Orion McHugh (Yellow)
UP next for the Spartans
The Spartans continue their four-game homestand this Sunday, Feb. 28, when they host Campbell for a Big South matchup at 2 p.m.
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