Greensboro, N.C. -- Fourth-seeded UNCG's Eric Gunnarsson broke a scoreless tie in the 74th minute to hand the Spartans a 1-0 victory and eliminate No. 5 seed Furman in the opening round of the Southern Conference Men's Soccer Championship on Saturday evening at UNCG Stadium in Greensboro, N.C.

The Spartans (11-6-2) advance to face top-seed ETSU in the SoCon semifinals on Thursday, November 10, in Greensboro at 3:30 p.m. with No. 2 seed Mercer set to face No. 3 seed Wofford in the second semifinal later in the evening. Furman finished the season at 6-9-3.

With under 17 minutes to play in regulation, Austin Matthews served a low cross from the right side of the box that slipped through traffic in the middle of the box and found its way to Gunnarsson at the top of the six-yard box. Gunnarsson volleyed a shot with his right foot that slipped through the legs of Paladin goalkeeper Jonathan Smith at the 73:37 mark for his third goal of the season.

Furman attempted to push numbers forward in the late going with Lewis Hawke testing UNCG's Logan Rohde with a header in the final 10 minutes, but the Paladins suffered another blow when Aigbekan Nosegbe was shown the red card with 4:20 to play. The Paladins were unable to record a shot the rest of the way as UNCG claimed its third victory of the campaign against Furman.

An even first half saw few chances on goal as UNCG held a 6-5 margin in total shot attempts. Smith, who finished with three saves, made a key save early in the second half to keep the match scoreless and Furman was denied an opportunity to take the lead when a defender swept the ball away from Hawke from behind in the middle of the box in the early portion of the second half.

UNCG finished with a 13-7 edge in shot attempts and 4-2 advantage in shots on goal. Rohde made two saves to earn the shutout for the Spartans.


Jordan Caskey, Furman Sports Information