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ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men's soccer team looks for its second straight win as it hosts Big South Conference foe Virginia Military Institute, Saturday afternoon at Eagle Field. Kickoff is set for 3 p.m.
Winthrop evened its record to 7-7-1 overall and 3-3-1 in the Big South with an double-overtime victory over Gardner-Webb. It was the Eagles second straight overtime match and fourth on the year as they improved to 3-0-1 in those games.
Senior
Alex Isern continues to shine offensively for the Eagles as he's scored in two straight games, but it was junior
Achille Obougou who stole the spotlight Wednesday night as he scored the game-winner in the second overtime. It was Obougou's sixth goal of the season and third game-winning goal.
Isern recorded his second straight game-tying goal when he converted on a penalty kick in the 57
th minute to allow the Eagles to get to overtime. It's the ninth time in 10 games in which Isern has recorded a point and he's scored in three of the last four matches.
The offense is creating opportunities as the team had 22 shots against the Runnin' Bulldogs, including three that banged off the crossbar and a couple of breakaways that the Eagles just couldn't finish.
Defensively the Eagles have gotten stronger since allowing five goals at Campbell (a season-high) as the team has allowed just one goal in each of its last three games (1-1-1 record in that time frame). The back four of senior
Josh Mort and freshmen
Jordi Lluch,
Kyle Kennedy and
Walker Johnson have been solid. In addition,
Enrique Miranda has started three straight games and made nine saves in that time frame.
Daniel Di Biagio,
Tomas Brennan,
Marc Segarra,
Josh Choice and
Nick Kowalski are hindered by injuries. Kowalski and Brennan are questionable while the other three are out for Saturday's game. Kennedy and Obougou returned this past Wednesday after missing the previous game. Obougou missed the last two games prior to Wednesday when he returned and played 101 minutes.
VMI is coming off its second win of the season and sports a record of 2-11-1 overall and 1-6-1 in the league as it fights for a spot in the top eight for the Big South Tournament.
The Keydets picked up a much needed road win on Saturday, Oct. 20 at UNC Asheville, 4-3. The four goals were a season-high for the Keydets, who are averaging 1.0 goals per game. VMI is one victory behind 7
th place where Gardner-Webb and Longwood are tied. Presbyterian College is holding the eighth spot.
Sophomore Blake McCauley leads VMI in scoring with four goals and he's put an impressive 75 percent of his shots on frame. Senior Matt Seinfeld is second on the team with three goals while senior Kyle Farmer and freshman Hunter Morgan lead the team with two assists.
On the year the Keydets have used three keepers with junior Daniel Kitchen getting the most work with appearances in 10 games and holding a 1-6-1 record. He's posted a 3.31 goals against average, is making 5.5 saves per game and has the only shutout on the year which came against #23 High Point in a 0-0 tie.
GAME NOTES:
-Winthrop leads the all-time series 11-0-2 and is 4-0 all-time against the Keydets at Eagle Field
-Isern is ranked 5
th in the Big South in scoring at 1.5 points per game and goals per game (0.5)
-Isern is ranked 3
rd in the Big South in assists with seven
-The 2004 the home game against VMI went into overtime with the Eagles prevailing 3-2
-The last time Winthrop won back-to-back games in conference play was Oct. 22 (at Liberty) and Oct. 26 (Presbyterian College) in 2010
-The Eagles have won back-to-back games in league play just once since 2009
-VMI has been shut out eight times but Eagles have just one shutout all season and eight in the past three seasons