ROCK HILL, SC— Saturday will feature the final home game of the season for the Winthrop men' soccer team as Marshall comes to town in a non-conference matchup.
Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. as the Eagles look to win back-to-back games for the first time all season. It will be a tough task against a strong Marshall team that is 8-4-4 on the season and coming off a 4-1 victory over 18th ranked South Carolina.
Winthrop overcame a 1-0 deficit on Thursday for a 2-1 victory against Gardner-Webb and will have one days rest to prepare for the Thundering Herd. Winthrop played the game against the Runnin' Bulldogs without starting center back Daniel Di Biagio and will have to play Saturday's game without its leading goal scorer as Miquel Casajuana must sit due to card accumulation.
Winthrop head coach Rich Posipanko is now just two wins shy of 340 in his career as a college coach.
After starting the season 7-2-2, Marshall slowed down a little bit and went winless in four straight games (0-2-2) as it faced a tough schedule. However, the team bounced back to win convincingly over a Top 20 team South Carolina. On the season the Thundering Herd is 1-0-1 against the Big South having defeated Radford 3-1 and tying Liberty 1-1. Three of the last four games have come against ranked teams (#8 SMU, #12 Tulsa and #18 South Carolina).
Offensively Marshall has scored 28 goals in 16 games and allowed 16. The team doesn't rely on one or two players for scoring as nine players have at least two goals and four have three or more. Sophomore Tom Jackson leads the team in scoring with three goals and five assists while junior defender Jordan Hilgefort is second with eight points.
Daniel Withrow, a 6-1 sophomore, has played every second in net for the Thundering Herd and posts a 0.93 goals against average and has recorded five shutouts on the year. He was the 2009 Conference USA Freshman of the Year.
Marshall is coached by Bob Gray, who has been in the business for over 30 years and is currently tied for 4th among active coaches for wins as he now has 402.
Winthrop steps away from Big South action as it faces Marshall before it wraps up the regular season next week on the road at UNC Asheville. The Eagles are now 3-4 in the league with one to play and are tied with Gardner-Webb and Liberty with nine points.
The Eagles face Marshall for the first time since 2000 when Marshall won the match 4-0. Winthrop leads the all-time series 3-1 and is 2-0 at Eagle Field.
For the third straight game, Michael Flato made the start in goal for Winthrop and performed well. He made eight saves in the win over Gardner-Webb and has 27 in three games.
Sophomore Josh Mort came through with the game-winning goal against Gardner-Webb, the first goal of his collegiate career. He also cleared a ball off the line to preserve the game. Redshirt freshman Nick Kowalski picked up his third assist on the season on Thursday and is now tied for the team lead.
LAST MEETING: These two teams last met Sept. 20, 2000 in Huntington, WV and three late goals lifted Marshall to a 4-0 win. The Thundering Herd got on the board early on a goal by Chris Donovan. Donovan made it 2-0 in the 71st minute and Marshall scored three goals in a four minute span to open up the game. The Thundering Herd had a 20-5 shot advantage in the match. Winthrop's Justin Stevens finished with seven saves. Donald Macgregor led the team in shots with three of the team's five.
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