Greenville, S.C. - USC Upstate senior Chad McCoy (Houston, Texas) scored his first goal of the season, but Furman scored in each half as the 23^rd-ranked Paladins took a 2-1 victory over the Spartans in non-conference men's soccer action Tuesday night at Stone Soccer Stadium.

Upstate fell to 3-4-0 on the year and closed out its non-conference schedule with the loss. The Spartans will open A-Sun play this Friday night when they welcome Lipscomb to County University Soccer Stadium for a 7:00 p.m. kickoff. Furman improved to 8-1-2 on the year.

Upstate fell victim to an early Furman goal when Walker Zimmerman found the back of the net on a give-and-go play in the box. He and Coleton Henning combined on the play. They had a 2-on-1 advantage on the Spartan defense and Henning fed Zimmerman for an open shot just 1:20 into the match to give the Paladins a 1-0 lead.

Upstate had a golden opportunity to tie the match in the 24^th-minute when Dave Musambi (Ottawa, Ontario) got behind the Furman defense on a long pass and took a shot from four yards out just outside of the goal frame. However, Alex Kann made the save for the Paladins.

Musambi nearly tied the game again in the 35^th-minute when he took a lead pass down the right side of the box and sent a hard shot that just cleared the upper right 90. The ball was deflected for a corner kick, but the Spartans could not get a scoring opportunity off the corner.

Jason McCabe (Irmo, S.C.) made three saves in the first half, all diving saves, to keep Furman from opening up a cushion in the game. He faced seven Paladin shots, four of which we on frame. Upstate certainly fought to make its opportunities count. The Spartans took four shots, placing three on frame and making Kann make three saves.

Furman kept the pressure up in the second half, peppering McCabe with five shots in the first 13 minutes. However, none of the shots were placed on goal, missing the frame each time.

Upstate had another attempt to even the match when Hakeem King (Port of Spain, Trinidad) fought to gain possession of a loose ball and placed a left-footed shot toward the goal. However, Kann made a diving save. Furman countered quickly and just 21 seconds later, Nikolai Hammer took a pass and placed a header into the back of the net to give the Paladins a 2-0 lead in the 64^th-minute. Henning and Clint Ritter assisted on the score.

McCabe came up with another diving save with a little over 10 minutes to play when Daniel Hojaij got behind the Upstate defense and took a shot that curved slightly from the right to left. McCabe dove to his right to knock the ball away from the goal and over the end line. The Paladins got a corner kick, but could not do anything with it.

Less than 45 seconds later, Upstate countered and Dylan Hoop (Cincinnati, Ohio) nearly notched a goal, but his shot toward the upper left 90 went just wide of the mark.

Furman nearly scored with six minutes to play when the Paladins took a free kick and a pair of headers was saved by McCabe and Upstate defender Matt Flynn (Greenville, S.C.).

Upstate got on the scoreboard with a late goal in the 90^th-minute. Chad McCoy (Houston, Texas) took a corner kick and sent it into the box where Dearmond put the header in the net for his first career goal to cut the Furman lead to 2-1. However, there was not enough time left on the clock for the Spartans to draw even.

Furman finished the game with a 22-10 lead in shots and a 6-3 advantage in corner kicks. McCabe made eight saves on the night, while Kann tallied four.

Upstate played the game without the services of five players, including four starters, because of injury. John Collins (Cape Cod, Mass.), Robbie Cook (Columbia, S.C.), Timo Foerster (Oberkirk, Germany), James Hadley (Norwich, England) and Chris McCoy (Houston, Texas) all missed the game with various injuries. Another starter, Nathan Perschke (Spring, Texas) left the game early in the first half with an injury and did not return.

"I told our guys that Furman was a very good team and the fact that we scored at the end of the game means we never stopped playing, and that is encouraging," said Upstate head coach Greg Hooks. "The effort was certainly there and we have to be pleased with what we saw out of our young guys tonight. There are no excuses, but with our injuries, we played a lot of young guys and a lot of guys out of position. But, we played well and played until the end."

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