GREENSBORO, N.C. – The UNC Greensboro (UNCG) men's soccer team­­ shut out the Furman Paladins in The Southern Conference (SoCon) action on Saturday night at the UNCG Soccer Stadium.

The win extended UNCG's unbeaten streak to eight games.

For the second straight match, senior Yoshiya Okawa scored for the Spartans. On the other end of the pitch, junior Tim Baerwalde earned his fourth career clean sheet and first as a Spartan with three saves in his UNCG debut.

HOW IT HAPPENED
The first half was a scoreless one that saw the Spartans own a 4-1 advantage in corner kicks despite trailing the Paladins 6-3 in shots. Furman's Aaron Salinas and UNCG's Baerwalde each made one save in the first 45 minutes.

Okawa gave the Spartans the only goal of the match in the 72nd minute. He provided the edge by scoring on a free kick after the Paladins were called for a handball just outside the 18-yard box. UNCG held on to the one-goal lead the rest of the way thanks to stout defense and a pair of saves from Baerwalde during the second half.

BY THE NUMBERS
- Okawa scored his team-leading fifth goal of the season.
- Baerwalde earned a clean sheet in his first match as a Spartan.
- The Spartans led in corners, 7-2, saves, 3-1, and trailed in shots, 13-6.
- UNCG improved its unbeaten streak to eight games.

RECORDS
UNCG: 6-1-4 (1-0-1 SoCon)
FUR: 4-3-2 (0-1-0 SoCon)

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UP NEXT
The Spartans will conclude a three-game home stretch by hosting Elon on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at the UNCG Soccer Stadium.

All regular season home games are FREE admission. Tuesday's match will feature a t-shirt giveaway for the first 100 UNCG students. Additionally, there will be buy one, get one FREE hot dogs, a food truck in attendance and the first 50 Fusion kids wearing their jersey will receive a FREE mini soccer ball!