SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Furman’s Jake Raine and Belmont’s Drew Romig have been named the Southern Conference men’s soccer offensive and defensive players of the week, respectively, for all competition from March 9-15.
 
Freshman Raine netted a pair of goals, including the match-winning score at the 105:15 mark, to hand Furman a 2-1, double-overtime victory at ETSU in the Paladins’ Southern Conference opener on Friday night. The Stoke, England, native opened the scoring with a shot from the top of the box in the 24th minute. In the second overtime period, he beat the ETSU goalkeeper to a cross toward the far post and scored the match-winner with his right foot. Raine has totaled four goals and an assist in his first four matches for the Paladins and is tied for the lead in the SoCon with nine points on the season. His four goals are also tied for first in the conference.
 
Furman (3-1, 1-0 SoCon) continues SoCon action against Wofford (0-4, 0-1) on Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Greenville, South Carolina.
 
Romig, the league’s defensive player of the week, earned his first career shutout as a Bruin and his second consecutive win in goal for the team. He tallied a pair of saves on eight shots faced in Belmont’s 1-0 win over Wofford on Saturday. Romig logged Belmont’s third clean sheet of the spring slate and holds the second-best goals against average in the conference at 0.50.
 
Belmont (4-0-1, 1-0) is set to host conference foe VMI (2-3, 0-0) at 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday in Nashville, Tennessee.
 
Other offensive nominees: A.J. Chastonay (Belmont) and Dylan Gaither (Mercer).
 
Other defensive nominees: Josh Hancock (ETSU), Ben Hale (Furman), JR DeRose (Mercer) and Matthew Cutler (UNCG).
 
2021 Southern Conference Men’s Soccer Players of the Week
 
Offense
Feb. 16    Dawson Gideon, Jr., F, Mercer
Feb. 23    AJ Chastonay, Fr., MF, Belmont
March 2   Shaun-Chris Joash, So., F, Furman
March 9   Mani Austmann, So., F, UNCG
March 16 Jake Raine, Fr., F, Furman


Defense
Feb. 16    JR DeRose, R-Sr., GK, Mercer
Feb. 23    Brant Zulauf, R-Fr., GK, Mercer
March 2   Cameron Petty, So., GK, Belmont
March 9   Myson Darden, So., D, UNCG
March 16 Drew Romig, Sr., GK, Belmont