Nov. 12, 2008

Box Score

DALLAS, Texas - South Carolina’s Blake Brettschneider, a first-team All-Conference USA performer, scored on a free kick during the 25th minute and the Gamecocks added two insurance goals to post a 3-0 upset win over host SMU on Wednesday at the 2008 C-USA Men’s Soccer Championship.

The shutout win was the team’s eight on the year and broke a streak three-straight ties for the club. The Gamecocks have registered nine total shutouts this season, while all eight of USC’s wins have come via the shutout

Bryan Lowder pushed the South Carolina lead to 2-0 just before halftime as he took a pass from Mike Lindsay and broke away and fired a shot past SMU keeper Craig Hill from 14 yards out.

The teams played even for the majority of the second half, before Carolina’s Sam Arthur corralled a long pass from Will Traynor, settled it, and put a nifty move on the SMU defender before flicking the ball home from 15 yards out in the 78th minute. The goal was Arthur’s league-leading 12th on the season and he also has a league-high 26 points.

South Carolina goalkeeper Jimmy Maurer, a second-team all-conference pick, was outstanding in the box for the Gamecocks. Maurer registered four saves and faced six shots on goal and 15 total shots. He also tallied his conference-leading ninth shutout.

USC head coach Mark Berson was proud that his team was able to shutout the host Mustangs.

“I was very proud of our team.” Berson said. “We battled for 90 minutes. To score three goals and shutout a team like SMU, the host institution in a feature game at 8 p.m. is a tremendous accomplishment. We had a great team effort and now we’ll prepare for a good Tulsa team.”

Second-team all-conference pick at forward for SMU, Paulo da Sliva, led his team with three shots, while all-freshman team member Diogo de Almeida also registered three shots. Goalkeeper Craig Hill made three saves for the Mustangs.

South Carolina improves to 8-5-5 with the victory and will battle No. 1 and nationally-ranked Tulsa at 7:30 p.m. in Friday’s semifinals.

SMU concludes its season at 10-6-2.

For complete C-USA Men’s Soccer Championship information visit www.ConferenceUSA.com