JOHNSON CITY, TN—Winthrop gave up an early goal and tried to play catch-up for 85 minutes but couldn't capitalize on any chances as it fell 2-0 to East Tennessee State, Wednesday evening in non-conference men's soccer action.
With the loss, the Eagles fall to 2-3 on the year and were shutout for the second straight game. ETSU improves to 3-2 on the year.
“It was a very frustrating loss,” said head coach Rich Posipanko. “All the credit to ETSU as it is very well coached and organized defensively. They work extremely hard and made it difficult to get any rhythm. They are an extremely direct team that we had problems with tonight.”
The Bucs came out with high pressure and continued the pressure for 90 minutes. Early the game ETSU tried a few long balls and eventually caught the Eagle defense asleep in the 5th minute. Guilherme Reis played a long ball to Aaron Schoenfeld, who flicked the ball past the Winthrop defense with his head. The flick went right to David Geno running onto the ball unmarked and he took a couple of touches before beating keeper Enrique Miranda to his left.
The Eagles were flat offensively in the first half and managed only one shot that came off a 30 yard shot by Tinotenda Chibharo in the 34th minute.
Winthrop's offense started to show some life over the final 25 minutes of the game as it had a couple of chances, but couldn't convert. The best opportunity of the game came in the final five minutes when Miquel Casajuana sent a ball over the top of the Buccaneers defense to a wide open Wylie Rea running on to the ball, but his header from about eight yards out on an angle just hit the side of the netting near the top right corner.
With the Eagles applying the pressure, ETSU continued to try and add an insurance goal with a couple of counter attacks that nearly put the game out of reach. The best chance came in the 68th minute when Geno beat a Winthrop defender, took the ball to the end line and laid off a pass in front to Blaike Woodruff who struck a first-time shot that just went wide of the left post.
The counters eventually led to a goal as Schoenfeld scored in the 90th minute after a turnover in the midfield by Winthrop. The poor pass was intercepted by Itode Fubara, who placed a perfect pass behind the defense to Schoenfeld running on and his shot went to the top right off the post and into the net.
Miranda finished with two saves and so did his counterpart James Holt. ETSU had a 9-8 advantage with shots.
The Eagles will remain on the road as they travel to Statesboro, GA to take on Georgia Southern on Sunday, Sept. 19 at noon.
