ROCK HILL, SC—Both Winthrop and Coastal Carolina are coming off losses and look to get back in the win column as the two meet in a Big South Conference contest on Saturday at 2 p.m. in Conway, SC.
Winthrop is now 4-8-1 and is coming off a 3-1 loss at home to 25th ranked College of Charleston as it gave up two late goals. Coastal Carolina, who is 8-5-1 on the year, is coming off a 3-1 road loss at North Carolina State in which it gave up two first half goals and tried to rally by pulling within one in the 80th minute, but the Wolfpack added an insurance goal in the 86th minute.
Currently, Coastal Carolina is in second place in the Big South standings with a 4-1 league record. The Chants lost their league opener at Liberty 1-0, but have since reeled off conference wins over VMI, Presbyterian College, UNC Asheville and Gardner-Webb. In fact, Coastal Carolina had won four straight before falling in Raleigh, NC on Wednesday. All five league games have been one-goal games. Coastal Carolina has been involved in nine one goal games this season.
Offensively the team has scored 19 goals (4 against George Washington and 3 against Howard) while allowing 13 goals on the year. Freshman Pedro Ribeiro is leading the team in scoring with five goals and one assist. He's only started six of the 14 games in which he's played. Sophomore Luis Faz is second in scoring with three goals and four assists. Junior Scott Angevine has played all but five minutes and 24 seconds of the season in the net. He's sporting a league-leading 0.90 goals against average and has five shutouts, which ranks second in the Big South.
Coastal Carolina leads the all-time series 22-16-2 and has won six of the last seven regular season meetings. Last year Coastal Carolina won 3-1 at Eagle Field and Winthrop won 3-2 in Conway in 2008. The last meeting between the two schools came in the 2009 Big South semi-finals and ended in a tie. Winthrop won the penalty shootout 4-2 to advance to the championship game.
Winthrop is currently 2-3 in the Big South standings and sitting all alone in sixth place. The Eagles are three points behind Liberty, who has played one more league game. A win by the Eagles would give High Point a two game cushion in the standings, but a Coastal Carolina win would keep its hopes alive for first place in the regular season and the number one seed in next month's conference tourney. Winthrop has conference games remaining against Gardner-Webb and UNC Asheville, so the best it can finish is 5-3 in the league.
Defense has been a struggle for the Eagles this season as they have given up three or more goals in seven games and a total of 28 goals in 13 games. As of today, Winthrop has scored 15 goals in 13 games and has not scored fewer than 20 goals in a single season since 1989 when the team had 19.
Enrique Miranda started the season in net and was replaced by Tom Banfield on Sept. 30, but Michael Flato made his first start on Tuesday after Winthrop was defeated 5-0 at Radford. So, any of the three could be in goal for Winthrop on Saturday.
Miquel Casajuana scored his third goal of the season on Tuesday. It was the fourth career goal against the Cougars and his 19th career goal. The senior midfielder is one point away from 50 career points.
LAST MEETING: The two teams met in the Big South semis with Winthrop prevailing in a penalty shootout. It was the second straight game in which the Eagles advanced on a shootout. Coastal Carolina struck first in the game after a scoreless first half when Leo Mukofsky headed home a free kick from Djamel Bekka in the 52nd minute. It looked as if the top seeded Chanticleers would hold off the Eagles until the 86th minute when Miquel Casajuana ripped a shot from 30 plus yards into the right corner of the goal. It was a physical game as the teams combined for 18 fouls and nine yellow cards.
CURRENT BIG SOUTH STANDINGS
|
Standings
|
Conference
|
Pts
|
Pct.
|
GF
|
GA
|
|
Overall
|
Pts
|
Pct.
|
GF
|
GA
|
|
Home
|
Away
|
Neutral
|
Last 10
|
Streak
|
|
HPU
|
5-0-0
|
15
|
1.000
|
14
|
2
|
|
10-3-1
|
31
|
.750
|
32
|
13
|
|
7-0
|
2-2
|
1-1
|
7-2-1
|
L 1
|
|
COASTAL
|
4-1-0
|
12
|
.800
|
6
|
3
|
|
8-5-1
|
25
|
.607
|
19
|
13
|
|
4-1
|
4-3
|
0-1
|
6-3-1
|
L 1
|
|
RADFORD
|
4-2-0
|
12
|
.667
|
15
|
7
|
|
6-5-2
|
20
|
.538
|
23
|
22
|
|
4-0
|
2-4
|
0-1
|
5-3-2
|
L 1
|
|
Gardner-Webb
|
3-2-0
|
9
|
.600
|
8
|
6
|
|
5-8-0
|
15
|
.385
|
16
|
22
|
|
3-3
|
2-4
|
0-1
|
4-6
|
W 1
|
|
LIBERTY
|
3-3-0
|
9
|
.500
|
6
|
6
|
|
7-6-1
|
22
|
.536
|
24
|
15
|
|
2-3
|
4-3
|
1-0
|
4-6
|
L 1
|
|
WINTHROP
|
2-3-0
|
6
|
.400
|
8
|
13
|
|
4-8-1
|
13
|
.346
|
15
|
27
|
|
2-4
|
1-4
|
1-0
|
2-7-1
|
L 2
|
|
VMI
|
1-3-0
|
3
|
.250
|
6
|
9
|
|
1-9-1
|
4
|
.136
|
11
|
32
|
|
1-4
|
0-5
|
0-0
|
1-8-1
|
W 1
|
|
ASHE
|
1-4-0
|
3
|
.200
|
3
|
12
|
|
3-9-1
|
10
|
.269
|
13
|
23
|
|
1-2
|
1-5
|
1-2
|
1-8-1
|
L 3
|
|
Presbyterian College
|
0-5-0
|
0
|
.000
|
4
|
12
|
|
2-9-1
|
7
|
.208
|
10
|
27
|
|
2-3
|
0-5
|
0-1
|
1-9
|
L 1
|
