Spartanburg, S.C. – Gardner-Webb scored just over two minutes into the final overtime period to take a thrilling 1-0 victory over USC Upstate Saturday night in non-conference men's soccer action at County University Soccer Stadium. It was Upstate's home opener.

Upstate fell to 0-1-1 with the loss and will take a few days off before heading to Lexington, Va., to play in VMI's tournament next weekend. The Spartans will face VMI Friday and Liberty Sunday. Gardner-Webb picked up its first win of the season and improved to 1-2-0 on the year.

The game was delayed for an hour because of constant lightning in the area. When the game got started, the teams battled back and forth with few solid scoring opportunities in the half. The teams combined for eight shots in the first 45 minutes, but only three were on frame.

The best scoring opportunity of the half came off the foot of Upstate's Dustin Bailey with a little less than seven minutes to play. He took possession of the ball in the center of the field about 25 yards out. He made a couple of moves around two defenders and took a shot from just inside the 18 yard box. Gardner-Webb keeper Matthew Swan managed to just get a hand on the laser of a shot to keep the game scoreless.

Gardner-Webb finished the half with a 5-3 lead in shots, but Upstate forced the Bulldogs into two saves, while Spartan keeper Jack Rubin was forced into just one in his first start at Upstate. The Spartans led in corner kicks, 4-3.

Rubin came up huge in the 58^th minute when he charged off his line to block a shot from Denzel Clarke who was one-on-one on a breakaway. Just seconds later, Swan came up big for the Bulldogs and then got some luck. Matt Flynn hammered a shot from 10 yards out that was saved by Swan. The rebound came out to the feet of Sam Moss, who's touch just went wide of the goal.

Rubin again made a couple of big saves as Gardner-Webb used give-and-go plays to get point blank shots off. Rubin, though, stayed strong and thwarted both attempts heading to the final 18 minutes of the second half. Although the teams battled for the game winner, the match headed to overtime in a scoreless tie.

After the teams played the first overtime period without a goal, Gardner-Webb put the game away with a goal just over two minutes into the final overtime session. Patrick Gurser got by his defender and slid a pass over to Filipe Conceicao in the box. He got off a shot and put it in the back of the net to lift the Bulldogs to a win in a hard fought game by both teams.

Gardner-Webb finished the game with an 11-7 lead in shots, 10-7 in corner kicks. Rubin finished with five saves on the night to lead Upstate on the defensive side of the ball, while Swan tallied three saves. Seven different Spartans got a shot off in the game.

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