ASHEVILLE, NC— Winthrop men's soccer lost its second straight match as it fell to UNC Asheville 1-0 in its final game of the regular season, Wednesday afternoon.
After a scoreless first half, the Bulldogs Bryan George scored in the 52nd minute off a set piece for the only goal of the match. After Winthrop was whistled for a foul about 30 yards out and to the right of the goal, Bryan Bartels served the free kick into the box and George hit a one-touch shot low from 10 yards away and past Michael Flato.
“I'm obviously disappointed in our effort and intensity today as well as our overall play,” said Winthrop head coach Rich Posipanko. “As we look back on the season as we enter the big south tournament, we had much higher expectations and nobody saw this type of regular season coming. Having said that, I still believe we have a good enough team to make a run at the championship.”
Winthrop (5-11-1, 3-5 BSC) had only a couple of dangerous chances for goals. The first came with under seven minutes to play in the first when Miquel Casajuana dribbled the ball up the field and switched direction toward the middle of the field. Casajuana dribbled until about 20 yards out and hit a low shot to the right corner, but Bulldog keeper Lassi Hurskainen made the diving save. The other came in the opening minutes of the second half off a corner kick. Asheville's defense had a poor clear and off a short pass from a teammate, Matt Stinson cracked a one-time shot to the lower left corner from right outside the penalty area. The shot was headed to the lower corner and then cleared off the line by an Asheville defender.
The Bulldogs (4-11-1, 2-5 BSC) best chance outside of the only goal came in the 61st minute off another free kick. Colton Paschall hit a free kick from 25 yards out that skimmed off the head of an Eagle player in the wall, was tipped by Flato in goal and off the crossbar. The ball shot straight down and popped right up into Flato's arms.
The Eagles applied a lot of pressure offensively, but couldn't connect on the final pass for good chances. Winthrop finished the game with a 10-9 advantage in shots as well as five corner kicks. Flato finished with one save while Hurskainen had three saves in his third shutout of the season.
Winthrop will now wait for the remaining Big South Conference games to be played before it knows what seed it will get for next week's conference tournament. The seeds and game times for the tournament will be announced Sunday, Nov. 7.
