Greenville, S.C. – Junior
Wilfer Bustamante posted his second straight hat trick and Furman men's soccer notched five first-half goals to down USC Upstate, 7-1, in the non-conference finale for the Paladins on Tuesday night at Stone Soccer Stadium.
Bustamante, who registered a hat trick in Furman's 3-2 win over Virginia Tech last Friday, became just the third player in school history to notch a hat trick in consecutive matches and the first to accomplish the feat since Ryan Higginbotham scored hat tricks in a 4-0 shutout of Davidson on November 9, 1996, and in a 4-2 win over Georgia Southern in the semifinal round of the SoCon Men's Soccer Championship the following day.
"I'm really proud of Wilfer for the way he is playing and for getting his second straight hat trick," said Paladin head coach
Brandon Tucker. "A lot of guys were able to get playing time tonight and it was good to have several different guys score goals. We'll turn our focus now to a crucial stretch run in the SoCon."
Senior
Caleb Johnson scored on
Luke Hutzell's assist to open the scoring at 5:09 before Bustamante, who has scored eight total goals over Furman's last three matches, netted the game-winning tally off
Connor Stout's assist at 7:27. The Spartans halved the Paladin lead on Jaami Qureshi's goal at 17:23, but USC Upstate was reduced to 10 men just 18 seconds later when David Palade was sent off for a violent tackle on
Ryan Wagner.
Centerback
Braden Dunham curled a left-footed free kick into the left-hand corner from 25 yards out to restore the two-goal cushion at 19:46 and Bustamante doubled his total with his second goal of the night just 74 seconds later to push the margin to 4-1. Sophomore
Grayson Travis tucked away his shot off Stout's cross at 25:53 before adding his second goal of the night on assists from Johnson and Bustamante in the 56
th minute.
Bustamante capped the scoring at 73:05 on a pass from
David Villavicencio as the Paladins matched their season-high of seven goals.
Furman (6-3-4) outshot the Spartans 30-3 and managed a 15-3 advantage in shots on goal.
Ivan Horvat,
Aaron Salinas, and
Max Miller all saw action in goal for the Paladins while Jarrett Wuerslin stopped seven shots for USC Upstate (4-11-0)
The Paladins return to SoCon play on Saturday when they travel to Johnson City, Tenn., for a 6 p.m. match versus the ETSU Buccaneers at Summers-Taylor Stadium.
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