By MONTE DUTTON

Doug Allison is not retiring without a fight. In his 31^st and final season as men’s soccer coach at Furman, he has taken the Paladins where they have never been before.

And they are taking him.

It’s not often that a men’s soccer team gets higher billing than a basketball team that knocks off a quality opponent, but Allison’s final team reached the NCAA Division I College Cup, i.e., the final four.

It’s not often that a freshman, Braden Dunham, fires in the winning goal, the only goal, in a college soccer equivalent of the shot heard ‘round the world. He launched his shot from nearly 40 yards away at the opposite end of the country. Merlo Field in Portland, Ore., was where No. 16 Furman ousted the University of Portland, eighth-seeded, as the Paladins booked their deepest advance ever in the national tournament.

The Paladins play in the national semifinals on Friday at First Horizon Stadium in Cary, N.C., against Washington.  

With less than 16 minutes remaining in regulation, Dunham dribbled across the midfield stripe and caught the Portland goalkeeper off his line with a left-footed chip that sailed over his head and into the right-hand corner at the 74:40 mark to stun the home crowd and give the Paladins a 1-0 lead.

Furman’s defense limited Portland’s scoring opportunities after the goal until the final two minutes of the match. Goalkeeper Ivan Horvat pushed Diego Roasas’ shot over the bar at the 88:04 mark and Sebastian Hernandez missed wide off the ensuing corner kick. On its final chance at an equalizer, Portland’s Alex Waggoner won the ball in the box and sent a looping header towards the far corner with 30 seconds on the clock, but Furman freshman Luke Munson cleared the ball off the line and Horvat made a diving effort to punch the ball out of danger as a Pilot forward dove to send a header towards the empty net. The attacker was whistled for a foul and time expired before the Pilots could get back in the attacking third of the field.

“I can’t say enough about these players,” said Paladin head coach Doug Allison, who notched his 365^th career victory in the quarterfinal triumph. “To come on the road in this environment and get the victory is unbelievable. What a goal by Braden. It took about 30 minutes to go in, but that’s the kind of goal it takes to win a game like this.”

Portland (14-2-4) controlled much of the possession in the first half, but Horvat made three saves, including a sliding effort at the top of the 18-yard box to deny Anton Hjalmarsson a goal in the 20th minute. After the Furman defense saved another goal-bound shot off the line, sophomore Wilfer Bustamante registered the Paladins’ only shot on target in the opening 45 half with a low, driving strike that was saved in the 26th minute.

Furman (16-1-5) came out on the attack early in the second half with Gabe Cox nearly breaking the deadlock only to see his shot rattle the right post. Portland responded by striking the woodwork and firing two shots just inches over the bar in the first 25 minutes of the second half.

The Pilots’ Joe Highfield produced the best chance of the first 70 minutes with a point-blank header at 69:53 that Horvat turned away for his fourth save of the night. Landon Hill countered by hitting a dipping shot across the box and off the cross bar just one minute later before Dunham netted his seventh goal of the season to break the deadlock.

“I didn’t really have an option to pass,” said Dunham, from Peachtree City, Ga. “I looked at the line, looked at the goalkeeper, and I gave it a rip. Tried my best to hit it on target and was fortunate enough to have it go in.”

Horvat finished with seven saves on the night to secure his eighth clean sheet of the season and the 10^th shutout of the year for the Paladins. Miguel-Angel Hernandez recorded two saves for the Pilots.

Portland posted a 17-11 advantage in total shots, a 9-3 margin in shots on goal and 9-4 edge in corner kicks earned. After producing just one shot in the opening half, Furman totaled 10 over the final 45 minutes.

The Paladins, who stretched their nation-best unbeaten run to 14 matches, are just the second Southern Conference team to reach the NCAA Division I College Cup and the first to do so since former league member Davidson accomplished the feat in 1992.

The top 10 seeds in the championship tournament have already been eliminated.

Take a look at the stats here.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Furman headed Harvard off at the pass, 79-69, on Saturday afternoon.

Few have labeled the Paladins’ campus as a ranch, though the star of a TV western was once known as “Paladin.” The theme song of Have Gun, Will Travel (“Paladin, Paladin, where do you roam? Paladin, Paladin, so far from home”) fit the soccer match better.

But what is sport – or sports writing – without mixed metaphors and silly similes?

Asa Thomas scored 18 points and Furman (6-4) used hot shooting to down Harvard (5-6), 79-69, in Saturday afternoon basketball action at Timmons Arena.
The win was the fifth in six games for Furman.
Thomas, a Clemson transfer, scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half and connected on 6/11 shots in the game, including 5/9 attempts from three-point range, to headline Furman’s season best .571 (28/49) shooting performance.

The game signaled a coming together for a team that began the season with impressive but disparate parts.

“You’ve got get together and get acclimated with all your teammates and a new system,” Thomas said. “The coaching staff is doing a great job during practice, and we’re working super hard getting everybody to play to their strengths.”

Joining Thomas in double figures were Alex Wilkins with 16 points, Cooper Bowser with 12, and Eddrin Bronson with 11.
Harvard’s Robert Hinson claimed game-high scoring honors with 26 points.
The Paladins led 37-30 at the break and opened the second half with a 15-4 run, spiced by a 3-pointer by Bronson, who followed the trey with a layup at the 13:57 to go to give Furman a 52-34 lead.

Harvard regrouped to cut Furman’s advantage to 57-48 on a Thomas Batties II layup with 10 minutes to go and got within seven at 59-52 on Hinton jump shot at the 8:39 mark. Furman, however, blunted the Crimson run over the next minute on Wilkins’ three-point play and a Bowser layup for a 64-52 lead.
Furman’s hot shooting covered both halves as the Paladins connected on 15/25 (.600) attempts (60.0%) over the game’s first 20 minutes and 13/24 (.542) in the latter period.
The Paladins posted a 33-25 rebounding advantage, led by Bowser and Ben Vander Wal with six each.

“There are so many areas where we need to keep getting stuff on film. We need to get more practice reps, and we’ve been playing so many games so fast,” Furman head coach Bob Richey said. “We’ve been in game prep for most of the practices. I really wanted to get a win because we respect Harvard a lot, what coach (Tommy) Amaker has done and how good they are.

“We’ve got a million things we still need to clean up, but the good news is we’ve won five out of six, we’ve got some really good quality wins, we’re building momentum, we’re playing well, and at this point, we’ve got to fight complacency. We’re not even close to a finished product.”
Ben Wisendrath and Austin Hunt joined Hinton in double figures with 10 points apiece for the Crimson.
Furman hosts Bob Jones on Tuesday in a 6:30 p.m. contest.

Take a look at the stats here.

Destiny Garrett and Shanti Simmons scored 17 points apiece, and Georgia Southern took advantage of cold shooting by Furman to notch a 72-56 victory in women’s basketball on Sunday afternoon at Hill Convocation Center in Statesboro, Ga.
The win, the fifth straight for Georgia Southern (6-3), halted the Eagles’ 10-game series losing streak to former Southern Conference rival Furman (4-6) and five-game skid to the Paladins in Statesboro.
Furman suffered its second worst shooting performance of the season, hitting only 19/67 (.284) from the field and just 4/20 from three-point range.
Georgia Southern fared significantly better, hitting 23/48 (.479} shots.
Leading 16-14 after one period, the Eagles took control in the second quarter with a 13-2 run over a three-minute span to take a 38-23 advantage following two free throws by Garrett with 2:03 to go before the half.

Furman, which trailed by 55-29 in the third quarter, cut the deficit to 64-52 in the final period on Clare Coyle’s three-point play with five minutes to go, but that’s as close as the Paladins got.
Alyssa Ervinled Furman with 13 points, and Coyle followed with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Furman returns home to take on Mars Hill next Sunday in a 2 p.m. game at Timmons Arena.

Take a look at the stats here.

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