Box Score

BOILING SPRINGS, NC— The Winthrop men's soccer gave the effort, but couldn't rally from a two-goal halftime deficit as it fell to second-seeded Gardner-Webb 2-1, Thursday evening in the opening round of the Big South Conference Tournament.
Winthrop finishes the season 7-12 overall and lost for the second straight year in the opening round of the conference tourney to Gardner-Webb. The Runnin' Bulldogs improved to 8-7-3 and advance to the semi-finals on Friday to face sixth-seeded High Point.
“I'm very disappointed with the way we played in the first half, but we were much better in the second,” said Winthrop head coach Rich Posipanko. “I felt like Gardner-Webb wanted it more than we did. I didn't feel like we were able to match their level of intensity and work rate. I wish Gardner-Webb the best in their next match.”
Winthrop fell behind 2-0 at the half and tried to rally as they were applying tons of pressure on the Gardner-Webb defense and it finally broke through in the 68^th minute. Mason Lavallet won the ball in the midfield and took off with speed toward goal. He slipped a pass in the middle to Alex Mantchev, who took a touch and as a defender was bodying him up he placed a shot into the back of the net from about 10 yards.
Lavallet nearly tied the game in the 72^nd minute when he received the ball in the midfield and dribbled up field with pace, working his way through three defenders and then blasted a shot from the 18-yard box that was headed toward the right corner of the goal from straight on. Gardner-Webb goalkeeper Scott Krotee made a big save to keep his team in the lead. Seconds later, Winthrop's Alex Isern served in a corner kick that was headed by Grady Trimble from just outside the top of the six-yard box that was blocked by a Gardner-Webb defender.
With just over 11 minutes remaining, Isern received a pass wide and served a ball into the box near post as Tomas Brennan ran on to the play and his header toward the top right corner was just wide.
The Eagles thought they tied the match with a little over 20 seconds remaining when a group of players went up for the ball with the keeper and the ball bounced backward as bodies collided and slipped into the net. However, Lavallet was whistled for a handball.
The game didn't have much action in the first half until the 29^th minute when Eric Asanin-Miroux sent a long diagonal ball over the Winthrop defense and hitting Rich Wall in stride as he chipped the ball over Enrique Miranda as he came out to close the angle.
It looked as if the Eagles would be down 1-0 at the break until a poor pass out of the back led to a goal by Denzel Clarke as he took a pass from John Sargent and beat Miranda with a shot from straight on inside the box.
Gardner-Webb finished with a 15-10 advantage in shots, including 8-1 in the first half. Miranda finished with seven saves while Krotee earned the win with three saves.