Huskies End Furman's Run; Doug Allison Coaches Last Match

Head coach Doug Allison addresses his team prior to Friday night's College Cup game against Washington (photo courtesy of Furman athletics)

Washington used a pair of first-half goals from Zach Ramsey and Charlie Kosakoff eight minutes apart to take control of the game, as the Huskies turned a 2-0 halftime lead into a 3-1 win over No. 16 Furman in the first of two NCAA College Cup matchups Friday night before a raucous crowd at First Horizon Soccer Stadium.

With the win, the Huskies improve to 15-6-2 and move into Monday night’s championship game where they will face off against N.C. State, who defeated St. Louis, 2-1, in the second of the two 2025 College Cup semifinals. 

Kickoff for Monday night’s clash between the Huskies and Wolfpack is set for 7 p.m. EST. The winner of Monday night's clash between the Huskies and the Wolfpack will claim a first-ever national title. 

For the Wolfpack, it marks their first-ever trip to a College Cup title match, which will in essence be a home match, which will be vocalized by the Wolfpack's very own student-run version a collegiate ultra known as the "Red Terrors." 

The Paladins see their nation-leading 14-match unbeaten streak come to an end, finishing the season with a 16-2-5 overall record.

The Huskies dominated the opening 45 minutes of action, and would eventually find the breakthrough in the 32nd minute when Alex Hall beat Furman’s flat-back four, and Zach Ramsey then found himself clear one-on-one after a perfectly timed run that beat the offsides trap and his shot curled around Paladin freshman goalkeeper Ivan Horvat into the corner of the net for a 1-0 Washington lead.

In the 40^th minute, the Huskies would find their second goal of the night, which came off a miscue in the Paladin defense on an attempted pass-back, and Charlie Kosakoff stole the ball, rounded Horvat and then tucked a neatly passed ball into the empty net for a 2-0 Washington lead.

The Huskies had been knocking at the door for much of the opening half, hitting the crossbar in the 23^rd minute from a header off a set-piece following a looping header. Not only did the Huskies dominate the possession in the game but also outshot the Paladins 12-2 in the opening half of play.

The second half would offer a better performance by the Paladins, who pushed for a goal, and created a couple of good chances as a result. 

However, the Huskies broke through to score their best goal of the night in the 86th minute, as Asher Hestad ripped a shot from the top of the box and tried to break the back of the net, as his roof-shot goal secured a 3-0 lead and Washington's place in the national title game for the second time in a four-year span and second time in school history. The Huskies dropped a 2-0 decision to Clemson in the 2021 national title game. 

Furman would close out the season and Doug Allison's career with a great goal, as Alex Hutzell converted only a half-chance in the 87th minute into one of the goals of the night, volleying a cross from Braden Dunham, which was then headed up by Connor Dunnigan into the path of the oncoming Hutzell who volleyed with the outside of his boot into the corner, leaving Washington goalkeeper Jadon Bowton frozen to the spot. The consolation prize for the Paladins made it a 3-1 game. 

The Huskies finished the match owning a 24-6 edge in total shots.

Furman's head coach Doug Allison finished out his outstanding career with a 365-175-77 record, helping the program to 11 regular-season SoCon titles, 11 SoCon Tournament titles, an Elite Eight appearance (1999) and the program's first-ever advancement into the College Cup in his 31st and final season as the head coach. 

Allison's career opened in 1995 with a visit from maybe the greatest soccer player in the history of the sport, in three-time Brazilian World Cup winner Pele (Edson Arantes Do Nascimento) and the opening of Eugene E. Stone Soccer Stadium on Furman's campus against his mentor Mark Berson and the South Carolina Gamecocks and ended in 2025 with a 3-1 loss to Washington in the College Cup semifinals. It was truly a remarkable career, which saw Allison coach arguably the best player in the history of the US Men's National Team, in Clint Dempsey, who spent three years with the Furman soccer program from 2001-03. 

Though Allison's career didn't have the ultimate fairytale ending, according to the veteran head coach, the fairytale was his kids coached down through three decades, and seeing them go from arriving as boys and maturing into men by the time they graduated, but as he says the most rewarding thing for him has been after Furman, which he has seen them become husbands and fathers, returning to the program and to see Allison due to the culture he has built, which began with soccer and ended with being an extension of family.

Allison doesn't know exactly what retirement holds because he's been so focused on this season and has given everything for his kids to have the best season possible. His approach helped give Furman its best season in not only soccer, but one of its best seasons in any sport period. 

"I've given so much to this season and I am not looking past this season," head coach Doug Allison said in the postgame press conference following the 3-1 loss to Washington.

"Every game was important and I wanted to give everything and I didn't want to go out as a guy who won three or four games...Every game was important...I wanted to give everything...everything...Those kids deserve it because they've given everything to me and so has my administration and I couldn't go out there one day and not work hard...I had to be the first one there and the last one out but I tell you what those kids deserved it and I am so happy for them," Allison added. 

Stay tuned in the next couple of weeks for a special feature that takes a look back at the Hall-of-Fame, 30-year career of Doug Allison as Furman's men's soccer coach.