By MONTE DUTTON

I watched three football games, two of them, fortunately, on TV.

Mercer crunched Presbyterian, 63-10, on Thursday. Clinton High raced past Laurens, 35-8, on Friday. Ole Miss destroyed Furman, 76-0, on Saturday. The combined scores were 174-18.

For a Furman grad, seldom has there been less consolation than a weekend in which the state’s big victories were scored by Wofford and The Citadel.

Clemson fans found little comfort in its 34-6 loss to top-ranked Georgia. South Carolina minimized the thrill of victory in a 23-19 win over Old Dominion.

In Clinton, the Red Devils overcame the trauma of a devastating downtown fire and took it out on Laurens, which lost its 6-5 quarterback to a shoulder injury.

Some gotta win, some gotta lose. Good-time Charlie’s got the blues. – Danny O’Keefe

Fortunately, there actually are other sports.

Chandler Parker and Genevieve Perry both had a career-high 14 kills on Saturday as the Furman volleyball team concluded the Furman Invite with a 23-25, 25-16, 25-15, 25-14 victory over the Charlotte 49ers.
Furman is 1-2, as is Charlotte.
Kristen Birmingham led the 49ers with 12 kills and Jessica Ricks contributed 11.
The Paladins travel to Spartanburg on Wednesday, September 4 to face USC Upstate at 6 p.m.

UTRGV defeated the Paladins on Friday, 28-26, 20-25, 25-23, 25-22

UTRGV stands for the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley if you’re interested.

The Paladins saw two players reach double figure kills, led by Lindsay Walch’s 13 on .306 hitting.

Claudia Lupescu, Nadine Zech, Ilana De Assis, and Isabella Costantini all picked up double-doubles for the Vaqueros.

Charleston Southern also defeated the Paladins on Friday, 25-21, 25-16, 20-25, 25-13.

The Buccaneers received three double-doubles from Triston Sutton, Sophia Kluska, and Ilaria Durante.

Chandler Parker and Ava Augustson both led Furman with nine kills each and Genevieve Perry recorded eight.

Furman rallied from an early deficit and overcame going down a man in the second half to top North Greenville, 2-1, in men’s soccer Friday night at Stone Soccer Stadium.

The Trailblazers grabbed the early lead in the 19^th minute when Omer Gulmez headed in Renan Macuglia’s corner kick at the far post. Furman answered less than four minutes into the second half as Christian Kraus was taken down in the box and converted from the penalty spot at 48:41 to level the match.

Furman’s Lloyd Wamu Snell was sent off in the 57^th minute, which gave NGU the man advantage, but the Trailblazers were reduced to 10 men in the 70^th minute when Cooper Tyler received his second caution of the night.

The Paladins took the lead with 10:18 left to play on Gabe Cox’s first collegiate goal. Freshman Luke Hutzell centered a pass to Cox on the left side and the freshman ripped a right-footed strike into the left side of the net from outside the box to give Furman a 2-1 advantage in the 80^th minute.

“A win is always better than any other result,” said Paladin head coach Doug Allison. “North Greenville has a very good team and Coach Aulick has done an outstanding job. We happy to get the victory and look forward to playing on Monday.”

Furman (2-0-1) returns to action on Monday to face the Charlotte 49ers for a 7 p.m. road test.

Clemson netted three goals in the opening 25 minutes en route to a 4-1 victory over Furman in women’s soccer action Thursday evening at Stone Soccer Stadium.

The Tigers opened the scoring in 10^th minute when Megan Bornkamp nodded in a header off Dani Davis’ corner kick to put Clemson in front. Less than three minutes later, in the 12^th minute, Maria Manousos scored off a Bornkamp assist to double the lead.

Furman (1-4-0) answered in the 20^th minute. After earning a corner kick, Ava King curled her in-swinging set piece over Clemson goalkeeper Ally Lynch and into the far-right corner at the 19:15 mark to cut the margin in half.

Clemson’s Mackenzie Duff responded with a goal off a Jenna Tobia assist in the 25^th minute to up the Tigers’ lead to 3-1 at the half, and Dani Davis converted from the penalty spot in the 49^th minute to cap the scoring.

Clemson (3-1-0) managed a 23-6 advantage in shots.

The Paladins are back in action on Sunday afternoon at Georgia Southern.

It’s just the beginning.

As Merle Haggard sang, “If we can make it through December, everything’s gonna be all right, I know.”

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