ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop yielded two first half goals and never recovered as it fell 3-0 to Mercer, Sunday afternoon in non-conference men's soccer action.
Winthrop (1-1) started off the game applying pressure and just missing on a couple of chances early on. In the third minute, Josh Goldstein's throw-in flew into the box over the Mercer defense and Ted Bartels ripped a shot from just inside the 18-yard box but Mercer keeper Brett Petricek turned away the shot.
“We we're not very good today,” said head coach Rich Posipanko. “We didn't have much of anything. Give a lot of credit to Mercer as they played very hard and were hungry to win after the loss on Friday.”
A minute later the Eagles Jordan Osborn nearly got Winthrop on the board as he fought hard inside the 18-yard box. After a deflection, the ball bounced in front of Osborn and he and Petricek got to the ball at the same time and it squirted through towards the net, but a Mercer defender just got a piece of his body on the ball to tip it over the crossbar.
In the 27th minute Tomas Brennan had a good opportunity after a throw in as the clear by the Bears defense came right to him about 10-yards out and his shot heading toward the left corner hit a defender and went over the end line for a corner.
Mercer (1-1) held off Winthrop early and took advantage of what Winthrop couldn't by putting two balls in the back of the net off deflections. The first goal came in the 10th minute when a cross by Ryan King hit Daniel Di Biagio and shot backwards right to the foot of Will Betts, who ripped a shot towards goal. The shot hit a defender, slipped by and over to Josh Ball in front of an open net for the goal. Just over two minutes later the Bears made it 2-0 when Taylor Krek worked his way into the box and hit a shot from an angle that was turned away by Enrique Miranda, but the save went into the front of the goal and Ryan Young was there to tap it in for the goal.
In the 61st minute, the Bears put the game out of reach after Ian Cameron buried a shot from an angle to the right of Miranda after he took a short pass from the end line from Richie Edmondson.
Miranda falls to 1-1 as he finished the game with three saves and Petricek had five as he is now 1-0
It was the first 3-0 loss for Winthrop at Eagle Field since Sept. 16, 2005 when Gardner-Webb won by the same score.
The Eagles will be back in action on Friday, Sept. 10 in Wilmington, NC against Long Island at 5 p.m. in the UNCW/Courtyard by Marriott Classic. Winthrop will then face UNC Wilmington on Sunday at 3:30 p.m.
