Furman Men’s Soccer Faces Tough ACC Foe in Wake Forest
Winston Salem: The Furman Paladins take a trip up to Winston Salem to face the ACC soccer powerhouse in #16 Wake Forest at 7pm. The Paladins are 1-1-0 on the season after claiming a 2-1 victory over defending CAA regular season champion and dropping a 6-0 decision to fourth-ranked Duke on the opening weekend of the regular season at the John Rennie Invitational in Durham, N.C. Caleb Johnson and Conor Dowler, who earned all-tournament honors last weekend, scored for the Paladins in their season-opening win.
Wake Forest (1-0-2) opened the season with a 3-1 win over Grand Canyon before earning a 1-1 draw versus California and a scoreless draw at No. 20 Maryland. Monday’s match marks the 21st meeting in the all-time series between the Paladins and Demon Deacons with Wake Forest holding a 9-6-5 series lead. Wake Forest claimed a 1-0 victory over the Paladins in the last meeting between the schools on November 28, 2007, at Spry Stadium in the second round of the NCAA Tournament per furmanpaladins.com SID of Soccer Jordan Caskey (Game Thread)
Wake Forest strikes first at the 30th minute and its quickly 1-0 as the goal puts the Paladins down to the #16 team in the nation. The Paladins will need to get a goal in before the half to keep Wake from pulling away. At the 20th minute the Deacons had a great open goal shot that was taken away by a defender header by Furman resulting in a corner kick saving a sure-fire goal.
Furman strike back at 8:56 as #16 Alfredo Diaz-Santillian gets a goal and its now 1-1 Paladins are back in the game. Diaz a 5th Year Senior Mid Fielder from Lewis Center Ohio helps the Paladins stay in the game with a header into the net. With 2 minutes to go the Furman goalie makes a awesome save and we are still tied up at 1-1. We go into halftime with Furman holding their own versus one of the top teams in the country, and we start the second half of play.
Wake at the 36:13 mark gets a goal after the Goalie blocked one goal shot but the bounce back was hit in by #9 Roald Mitchell with an Assist by #25 Chase Oliver. The Demon Deacons are now up 2-1 on the Furman Paladins, and its back to survive mode here in Winston Salem for the Paladins.
Wake after a Red card on Furman & Yellow card gets a a Penalty kick and scores when #9 Roald Mitchell gets in at the 20-minute mark in the game to make it 3-1. Wake quickly scores again at the 19:38 mark by #14 Jahlane Forbes and its 4-1 Wake opens up a huge lead. The two teams play keep away willing to let the game end, but with a minute left #11 Leo Guarino and a assist by #18 Cooper Flax and Wake has another goal and its now 5-1. That will seal the deal as Wake gets the win tonight.
