Herd defeats South Carolina in C-USA opener

Marshall (4-0-1, 1-0 C-USA) used that to its advantage in the second half. The Thundering Herd's Milo Yousef was given a free kick just outside the top of the goalkeeper box after a Gamecocks foul — one of seven they committed on the day. Yousef buried the kick into the right corner of the net past the diving South Carolina goalkeeper Buenya Yusufoglu.

"College soccer is pretty physical as you go but they're a big team and they kind of build their game on sort of winning the battles physically in the center of the pitch and so if we want to go in there on the ball there's going to be a lot of contact," said Marshall head coach Chris Grassie. South Carolina (3-2-0, 0-1 C-USA) had 15 fouls in the game to Marshall's eight.

Yusufoglu was under assault all day by the Thundering Herd and recorded six saves but Marshall outshot South Carolina 22-4 in the game, and 15-1 in the second half.

Marshall's defense, meanwhile, did not allow any shots on goal by the Gamecocks.

Pedro Dolabella made it 2-0 Marshall on a double-assist by Vinicius Fernandes and Max Schneider. Fernandes sent a cross to the right that was headed by Schneider to Dolabella and set the final score.

"I thought we were a bit sloppy so it kind of left us open for a few shots," Grassie said. "We were taking them in the pitch and I think we were trying to get as good as we were getting. It was becoming a battle and obviously the red card changed it."

At the time of the ejection with 2:08 remaining in the first half Marshall had a 7-3 advantage in shots taken. After South Carolina lost a man, Marshall took the big second half advantage in that category.

"Once we sorted out the technical errors we were able to get in behind them the guys went back to the tactics we worked on in the week, and obviously it was a short turn around and we have another short turn around coming up," Grassie said.

Marshall had just three days between its season opener at Purdue-Fort Wayne to its next game at Northern Kentucky which ended in a tie. Since then, the Herd has had four days off before its next contest until it hosts Texas-Rio Grande Valley Tuesday at 7 p.m.

That game will be the fourth game of a five-game homestand for that will conclude with Akron.