Nov. 16, 2007

• Championship Central
• Watch Marshall vs. Florida International
• Watch Tulsa vs. South Carolina

Semifinal # 2 - Tulsa 4, South Carolina 1

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - Top-seeded Tulsa won its ninth match in a row with 4-1 victory over No. 4 seed South Carolina to advance to Sunday's final of the 2007 Conference USA Men's Soccer Championship. Tulsa will play No. 7 seed Florida International, who eliminated defending champion SMU and Marshall, in the final at 3 p.m. Sunday.

Four different players scored for the Golden Hurricane, who ranks second in the nation in goals this season and improves to 14-2-2.

Junior midfielder Joe Salem scored in the 26th minute and TU took a 1-0 advantage into the break. Classmate Eric DeFreitas scored off a cross from Jose Parada to extend the lead to 2-0, then Parada netted his sixth goal of the season to take a 3-0 edge. DeFreitas has scored two goals in the C-USA Championship as he had the lone tally in yesterday's 1-0 quarterfinal win over UAB.

The Gamecocks did not give up and were still keeping an aggressive pace in the final 30 minutes. Mark Wiltse put Carolina on the scoreboard in the 75th minute.

Tulsa sophomore defender Kilian Poeschk scored his first goal of the season for the final 4-1 decision.

The game was a rematch of the 2005 championship final, which South Carolina won, 1-0.

Semifinal # 1 - Florida International 3, Marshall 2 (ot)

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- Florida International sophomore Juan Guerra scored 1:15 into the first overtime to give the No. 7 seed Golden Panthers a 3-2 victory over Marshall in the first semifinal match of the 2007 Conference USA Men's Soccer Championship, played at UAB's West Campus Field.

Guerra, an All-Conference USA first-team selection, netted his seventh goal of the season and second game-winner of the season to advance FIU to Sunday's championship match against the winner of the Tulsa-South Carolina semifinal. The championship will kick off at 3 p.m. CST and will be televised live on CSTV.

The game went back and forth during regulation. Marshall scored early when sophomore Nick Daniele scored in the fifth minute off an assist from Jermaine Johnson. It was his first career goal.

FIU tied it up with less than seven minutes remaining in the half when senior Mario Franca scored his first goal of the season and the game was knotted 1-1 at the break.

Johnson picked up his second yellow card of the match in the 64th minute and FIU took advantage of the man down to score three minutes later when Play moved back to the other half of the field and FIU finally found the net when freshman Steven Jair Cabas ran up fast on the right side and took a feed from Phillip Fisher to find the net. Marshall senior Avneet Shergill was credited with the equalizer in the 73rd minute when he scored on a penalty kick.

Thirty seconds later FIU's Fisher was issued a red card and the field personnel was even through the rest of regulation. With 12 and a half minutes to play, Guerra had an excellent opportunity when he drilled a shot that bounced hard off the left goal post. It was his fifth shot of the night and his next attempt proved to be the game-winner.

Top-seeded Tulsa, riding an eight-game win streak, squares off with No. 4 seed South Carolina in the nightcap.

GameTracker will provide live stats and live video streaming of both games and is available free of charge on www.conferenceusa.com.