ROCK HILL, SC—Daniel Revivo scored two goals and assisted on another to help lead the Winthrop men’s soccer team to a 4-0 victory over Virginia Military Institute, Sunday afternoon in Big South Conference action at Eagle Field.
The Eagles (8-3, 3-0), playing in their first game since Sept. 30, were a bit rusty in the first half. Despite creating scoring opportunities, VMI keeper Brian Sowell and the VMI defense was doing just enough to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard. However, Revivo finally broke through in the 44th minute to give the Eagles the lead at halftime. Henry Kalungi served a ball over the top of the defense into the box that Revivo brought down nicely and he slipped the ball into the net for his ninth of the season.
“I thought we played very well in the second half today,” said head coach Rich Posipanko, who is now two wins shy of 200 as the Winthrop head coach. “VMI is a very difficult team to play against. After watching them I cannot figure out why they have not won games this year. The score is certainly not indicative of the game. They work hard and are well coached. It was a close game until the second goal. It was good to win another conference game and we also had the opportunity to play everyone on the roster today that was healthy. We expect to be at full strength for our next game. Nsereko, Luk and Skonicki should all be ready to go.”
Both teams had good scoring opportunities in the first half, but Patrick Mitrovich did his part to keep a clean slate by making seven saves.
It didn’t take long for Revivo to get his 10th of the season as he scored again in the 49th minute. Michael Luk played a perfect through ball behind the defense to Revivo running on. Revivo hit the shot first time into the top right corner for the goal from the left side. With 10 goals on the season, Revivo ties Saidi Isaac as the school’s all-time leading goal scorer at the NCAA Division I level with 46.
Winthrop continued to pressure offensively in the second half and ended up with 21 shots in the second half alone. Sowell continued to make saves that seemed like sure goals, but was eventually replaced after allowing a third goal in the 57th minute. Ben Kieffner, who had a goal taken away in the first half on an offside call, scored his first career goal off a nice pass from Matt Lacey in front of the net. Revivo set up the goal from the beginning as he slipped a pass behind the VMI right back to Lacey running on. Lacey placed a cross perfectly in front of the net to Kieffner, who put the ball in the net from about six yards out.
VMI (0-10, 0-3) replaced Sowell with Adrian Dominguez, who finished the game with six saves that included two one-on-one plays. Sowell finished with eight saves and falls to 0-3 on the year. Mitrovich made a total of 11 saves to improve to 7-3 on the year, but did not earn the shutout as Mike McCullion finished the game in net.
The fourth goal for Winthrop came in the 80th minute from Matthew Skonicki, who was a late scratch from the starting line-up due to an illness. But whatever was bothering him, didn’t seem to in the second half as he came on and scored his sixth of the year. Skonicki’s first shot was saved by Dominguez, but he put home the rebound to make it 4-0. It’s the fourth straight game in which Skonicki has scored a goal.
Neither team defended very well as Winthrop finished with a 29-17 advantage in shots. The Eagles finished with 20 of the shots on goal and VMI had 11.
The Eagles will step away from Big South action as they will host Brevard College on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 7 p.m.
