ROCK HILL, SC— The Winthrop men's soccer team dropped its Big South Conference opener as Liberty scored two second half goals en route to a 3-0 win, Saturday evening in men's soccer action.
Liberty (5-2-1, 1-1) held a 1-0 halftime advantage and scored the second goal in the first six minutes of the second half to give itself a cushion. Darren Amoo scored the first two goals as he now has seven goals on the season.
Winthrop (2-5, 0-1) suffered its fourth straight loss, all of which have been shutouts. The scoreless streak for the Eagles has now stretched to 360 minutes. The last time the Eagles were shutout four consecutive times was during the 1995 season.
Both teams had several chances to score in the first half, but it was Liberty that struck first as Amoo's header from six yards out gave Liberty a 1-0 advantage. Timothy Bullock split two Winthrop defenders with a pass to Phillip Aseweh down the left, who then took a touch and crossed to the ball right to Amoo in front for the open header.
The Eagles had a few chances early on and Felipe Netto nearly put them ahead, but his shot off a cross from Matt Stinson hit off the far post. The shot bounced back across the middle, but was cleared away. In the 10th minute Wylie Rea headed a corner kick on frame, but Paul Gilbert made the save. Tomas Brennan tried to blast the rebound into the back of the net, but it deflected off a Liberty defender and over the crossbar.
Andres Pullin had a couple of good opportunities with the first coming in the 20th minute when Stinson set him up at an angle inside the 18-yard box. After receiving the pass he cut the ball back toward the middle and struck a left footed shot that missed wide at the near post. In the 30th minute Pullin had another good chance, but the Flames defense once again got in the way just enough as his shot off a rebound hit a defender and just floated over the crossbar.
Amoo had a good chance midway through the first half as Chris Phillips set him up with a one-on-one with Winthrop keeper Enrique Miranda, but Jordan Osborn came in at the last second to knock the ball out of bounds for a corner kick.
In the 51st minute, Liberty was strong in the air once again, which led to the second goal. Aseweh served a ball into the box that was headed down by Greg White across the goal mouth to Amoo, who blasted a one-touch shot past Miranda.
The final goal came on a mistake by Miranda as he took too long to try and clear the ball on a pass back and Richard Nyarko stuffed the clear, turned around and was able to easily pass the ball into the net for his first of the year.
Liberty will be back in action on Saturday, Oct. 1 when it returns to Lynchburg, VA to take on Coastal Carolina at 4 p.m. Winthrop will head to Clinton, SC for its next contest to take on Presbyterian College at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 29.
