UAB Men's Soccer Advances to Sweet Sixteen

Flavio Monteiro scored off a corner kick in the 97th minute of the match as UAB beat South Carolina 3-2 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament in Columbia, S.C. The Blazers are now in the "Sweet 16" and will play Clemson next weekend at a date and time to be determined.

Monteiro's kick sailed over the head of South Carolina goalkeeper Michael Bachmeyer. UAB is now 15-5. South Carolina finishes the season 12-5-2.

"South Carolina is a great team. They didn't give up when they got behind and kept fighting and when the game went into overtime it was either team's game to win," said UAB head coach Mike Getman. "I'm proud of our team and how we were able to win two tough games in overtime."

The Blazers had lost three of their last four games heading into Friday's match with Furman.

"We struggled the last couple of weeks of the regular season and lost our rhythm. "Our feeling entering the NCAA Tournament was to get through the first game and find our rhythym against. We did that and I think we gained some confidence and that gave us a good chance," said Getman.

The two team traded goals throughout the match. UAB struck first when Martin Rey scored the first of his two goals just 11:09 into the match. That goal held up through the first half.

South Carolina evened things up just 3:16 into the second half when Ryan Daley scored in the 49th minute of the match on a penalty kick. Joey Worthen was fouled by Rogeiro Oliveira in the box setting up the kick.

Rey put UAB back on top at the 75:07 mark, when he scored unassisted. However, the Gamecocks scored less than a minute later on a Jordan Quinn goal.

Rey now has 26 goals for his career and is now tied for third in all-time goals at UAB with Peter Byaruhanga. It was Monteiro's 22nd career goal moving him into sixth place.

South Carolina outshot UAB 15-10. Blazer goalkeeper Clint Baumstark had three saves, all in the first half.

This is the second time in the last three years UAB has won the first two games in the tournament. UAB advanced to the Elite Eight in 1999, when the field was 32 teams. It was 48 teams this year.