Greenville, S.C. -- Sophomore Evan De Ycaza capped the first half with a goal and opened the second half with another to pace the Furman men's soccer team to a 3-0 victory over visiting East Tennessee State in Southern Conference action Friday evening on Seagraves Field at Stone Stadium.

The win marked the Paladins third consecutive victory and improved Furman to 8-4-3 overall and 4-3-1 in league play.  ETSU fell to 7-7-1 overall and 3-4-1 in the SoCon.

"Once again, it's always good to get three points in SoCon play late in the season," said Furman head coach Doug Allison.  "We appreciated the great crowd support tonight and it was great to see so many members of our 1999 team back on campus.  We hope to have everyone come back out to support us against Mercer on Tuesday."

With only 19 second remaining in the first half, Tony Santibanez's pass deflected to Kevin Pahl on the right wing.  The junior fired a low cross through the box that De Ycaza settled before hammering a shot off of the bounce into the left side of the net to give the Paladins a 1-0 lead heading into intermission.

Just 32 seconds into the second half, Pahl won the ball near the top of the box and fed a pass wide to the right.  De Ycaza ran onto the pass and belted a shot across the face of goal and into the left corner for his second tally of the night and third of the season to up the margin to 2-0.

Furman completed the scoring at the 54:58 mark on Kevin Edelmann's first career goal as a Paladin.  Edelmann headed a shot towards goal off of a corner kick and followed up the rebound with header into an open net to put Furman ahead 3-0.

The Paladins compiled a 17-9 margin on shot attempts and a 5-2 advantage in shots on goal against the Buccaneers.

Junior Sven Lissek, who made a pair of saves in the early moments of the second half, finished with two saves to earn the shutout for Furman.  It marked his eighth clean sheet in 14 starts this season.

Furman continues its homestand with its regular season home finale on Tuesday against first place Mercer at 7 p.m.  Tickets for the match will be available at the gate at $4 for adults and $2 for children.  Furman students receive free admission with a valid student ID.

Fans can log onto FurmanPaladins.com to follow live statistics and watch free live streaming video of Tuesday's match via the SoCon Digital Network.  Live in-game updates will be available on Twitter by following @FurmanSoccer.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information