GREENVILLE, S.C. – The men's soccer team scored three goals to Furman's one as the Terriers defeated the Paladins on a rainy Saturday night at Stone Soccer Stadium.
The Terriers capitalized on a Furman turnover in the box in the 11th minute for their first goal. A Furman defender passed the ball across the box and forward
Nicky Watson came in from the right side to strike the ball into the back left corner of the net. The goal was his first of the season and his first as a Terrier.
Wofford (8-2-1, 3-1 SoCon) would score off another Furman turnover in the 31st minute. Defender
Tanner DeFreitas launched what head coach
Ralph Polson described as an "absolute rocket" from 30 yards out on the left side that whizzed by the keeper and into the net for his first career goal.
DeFreitas'goal made it a Wofford 2-0 advantage at halftime. Furman came out strong in the second half, taking two early corner kick opportunities. The Paladins came close to scoring on a header from defender Kyle McLagan, but the Terrier defense held strong and kept the score at 2-0.
Midfielder
Nestor Jaramillo provided Wofford a 3-0 advantage at the 67th minute. Midfielder
Will Puckett passed the ball from the middle to Jaramillo on the left side. The senior struck a line drive shot from 25 yards out into the back right corner for the goal.
Jaramillo now has four goals for the season, tying him for the team lead with
Connor Donohue and
Matthew Aurednik. It also was the 20th of his career, making him the eighth Terrier in program history with 20 career goals and the second in the team's Division 1 era.
A minute later, the Paladins answered with a goal of their own. Midfielder Marco Ortiz was able to head home a goal past Terrier keeper
Garrett Closs. Midfielder Noah Teplitzky assisted Ortiz on the goal.
Furman (4-4-2, 3-1 SoCon) created chances to continue scoring in the second half, but the Terrier defense held the Paladins to the one goal to create the final score. The Paladins kept possession for the majority of the final 30 minutes of the match in a scramble to get another goal.
"It wasn't always pretty, but we defended," Coach Polson said after the match. "We played like crazy at the end. We knew what we had to do to defend and counter them, and that's what we tried to do tonight. We knew they wanted to overload some places and push some players into the attack, try to make us defend a bit more. We adjusted to that well while not taking away our creativity because I thought going forward we were really good. We really put them on their heels."
Overall, the Paladins outshot the Terriers in the match 16-10 and took five corner kicks compared to the Terriers' three corner attempts. The match was a physical one as well, with both teams receiving multiple yellow cards and accumulating over 30 fouls combined for the match.
"For whatever reason, we always play well here," Coach Polson said. "They have so many weapons and we were able to take care of everything they threw at us. It was a great performance. We played with a lot of heart tonight. Everything we asked of them they did, and it was just a great team effort tonight."
The win vaults the Terriers into a tie for first in the SoCon standings with the Paladins. Furman still holds a 31-12 advantage in the series history, but Wofford has now won six of the last eight contests between the two rivals, including the last five in the regular season.
"It's still early and there's still a lot of soccer to be played, but I'll never turn down being in first place," Coach Polson said. "It's a great place to be. I keep thinking about the preseason being picked fifth and for us to four games in be leading the conference, give our boys a lot of credit. They've used that as a bit of a motivation."
The Terriers return to action Tuesday when the team faces UNCG at Snyder Field. That match is scheduled for 7 p.m., and admission to Snyder Field is free.
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