Greenville, S.C. – The No. 16 seed Furman men's soccer team looks to secure the program's first trip to the NCAA Men's College Cup when it faces the No. 8 seed Portland Pilots in quarterfinal round action Friday night in Portland, Ore.
Friday's match is set for a 10 p.m. EST kickoff at Merlo Field on the University of Portland campus and will be streamed live on ESPN+.
Click here to purchase tickets. Links for the live stream and live statistics can be found on the men's soccer schedule page at FurmanPaladins.com.
Furman enters Friday's Elite Eight match riding a nation-best 13-match unbeaten run and sporting a 15-1-5 record. The Southern Conference champion Paladins, who blanked Western Michigan in second round play after receiving a first-round bye, advanced on penalty kicks, 5-4, versus Hofstra in Sunday's Sweet Sixteen match following a 3-3 draw versus the Pride.
Luke Hutzell,
Wilfer Bustamante, and
Diego Hernandez scored goals to help Furman to a 3-1 lead before Hofstra's Laurie Goddard netted a pair of goals just 68 seconds apart to force overtime. The Paladins converted on all five of their penalty kick opportunities, including senior
Landon Hill's deciding kick in the fifth round, to advance to the Elite Eight.
The berth in the quarterfinal round is the second in Furman history. Head coach
Doug Allison guided the Paladins to their first Elite Eight appearance in 1999 when Furman claimed a 2-1 victory over North Carolina and 4-0 triumph at Wake Forest before dropping a 3-2 decision at UConn in the quarterfinals. Allison, who is in his 31
st and final season as head coach, has led Furman to a 364-174-77 mark during his time on the Paladins' sideline. His 364 victories are tied for 10
thmost among active NCAA Division I head coaches.
The 2025 Paladins, ranked No. 1 in the Top Drawer Soccer Top 25 and 12
th in the last United Soccer Coaches Poll, lead the nation with 153 total points and rank seventh in scoring offense with 2.33 goals per game. Midfielder
Diego Hernandez, the SoCon Player of the Year, leads the Paladins with 10 goals and nine assists. Redshirt-Freshman
Ivan Horvat, named SoCon Goalkeeper of the Year last month, has helped Furman register nine shutouts.
After receiving a first-round bye, Portland advanced past Denver on penalty kicks in second round play before scoring a 1-0 victory over Grand Canyon in last weekend's Sweet Sixteen match. The Pilots, ranked third by Top Drawer Soccer and No. 6 in the United Soccer Coaches Poll, are 14-1-4 overall and posted a second-place finish in the West Coast Conference with a 6-1-2 record.
Friday's match marks the second meeting between the Paladins and Pilots with Furman holding a 1-0 series lead. Eric Baffour and Eliot Paschalis netted second-half goals to power Furman to a 2-0 victory over Portland in the only previous meeting on September 21, 2007, at the University of Washington's Husky Fever Classic in Seattle, Wash. Furman and Portland have one common opponent this season. The Paladins played to a scoreless draw versus San Diego in August while Portland notched a 2-1 win over the Toreros in October.
The winner of Friday's Furman-Portland clash will advance to the 2025 Men's College Cup at First Horizon Stadium at WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, N.C. The national semifinals are slated for Friday, December 12, with the national championship match scheduled to kickoff at 7:30 p.m. on Monday, December 15. All three matches in Cary will be televised live on ESPNU.
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