Men’s Soccer Set to Battle Furman in SoCon Championship

GREENVILLE, S.C. –The Mercer Men's soccer team will travel to Greenville, South Carolina to battle for the Southern Conference Tournament Championship against Furman University on November 12 at 2 P.M. at Stone Stadium. Since joining the Southern Conference in 2014, Brad Ruzzo has led Mercer to the Southern Conference Championship for the seventh time and looks to add his fifth title in ten years.

MATCH INFO
Date | Time: Sunday, Nov. 12 | 2 p.m. ET
Teams: Mercer (6-5-8 overall, 1-2-2 SoCon) vs. Furman (10-5-3 overall, 2-2-1 SoCon)
Location: Greenville, S.C.| Stone Stadium
Watch: ESPN+
Live Stats: Live Stats
Twitter Updates: @Mercer_MSoccer

SERIES HISTORY | LAST MEETING
This will be the 22nd matchup between the Bears and the Paladins. The last time these two programs met was earlier this season at the Inaugural Baba Agbaje Memorial Game at Betts Stadium on October 14. The match would be a battle between the two programs; however, The Bears and Paladins would draw the contest 0-0.

LAST TIME OUT
Mercer moves to 6-5-8 on the season, following a 4-3 victory in penalty kicks over ETSU. The first 20 minutes of the match would see a back-and-forth game between the Bears and the Bucs. However, ETSU would strike first in the 30th minute and would finish the first half leading 1-0.

The Bears relentless pressure in the second half would prove to be the difference maker. Mercer continued to possess the ball in the Bucs half for the first 20 minutes of the second half until they were able to break the Bucs' defense in the 80th minute and find their equalizing goal. Dylan Gaither would whip a corner kick into the back post of the goal where Sekou Agard would find the top right corner of the net evening the score at 1-1. The Bears would battle the Bucs until the final whistle forcing additional time. In the first overtime, ETSU and Mercer would continue to battle, but no one was able to find the back of the net. In the second overtime, both Mercer and ETSU would have shot opportunities, but none were on target.

ETSU careened its first penalty kick off of the crossbar, while the Bears got three-straight scores from Omar Hernandez, Carlos Santamaria, and Dylan Gaither. Trevor McMullen made a big save on the hosts' fourth attempt of the shootout and set up the visitors for the win, but Mercer missed its next two kicks to force the penalty kick shootout into sudden-death mode. McMullen came up with another big save in the sixth round, and junior Grant Hampton followed by burying the difference maker moving the Bears onto the SoCon Championship.

SCOUTING FURMAN
Through eighteen games this season the Paladins are 10-5-3 and punched their ticket to the Southern Conference Championship following a 1-0 victory over the No. 2 seed Wofford in Spartanburg, South Carolina. Furman is making its 18^th appearance in league finals and is looking to add its 15th league title.

FOLLOW THE BEARS
For complete coverage of Mercer Men's Soccer, please follow the Bears on social media at @Mercer_MSoccer (Twitter), MercerMSoccer (Instagram) and /MercerMSoccer (Facebook) or visit the official home of Mercer Athletics at MercerBears.com.

Men’s Soccer Set to Battle Furman in SoCon Championship

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Players Mentioned

Sekou Agard

Baba Agbaje

Dylan Gaither

Grant Hampton

Omar Hernandez

Trevor McMullen

Carlos Santamaria

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