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ROCK HILL, SC—For the ninth time in school history, the Winthrop men's soccer team will appear in the Big South Conference title game as it faces nationally-ranked and top-seeded Coastal Carolina, Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. at Bryan Park. The game will be available on ESPN3.
The Eagles, who have won their last three championship appearances, will face its familiar foe for the fifth time in a championship game. It's the first appearance in the title game for the Eagles since 2009 and the first time against Coastal Carolina since 2008. It will also be the 10
th time the two teams have squared off in conference tournament play.
Winthrop (11-8-1) knocked off second-seeded Radford, 2-1 in overtime on Friday to advance to the title game. It was the second straight overtime victory in the conference tournament as Winthrop defeated third-seeded Liberty, 2-1. Winthrop is now 5-0-1 on the season in overtime games.
Coastal Carolina, ranked 8th in the nation, advanced to the championship game with wins over eighth-seeded Presbyterian College and fifth-seeded High Point.
Senior
Alex Isern stole the show offensively in the semifinal victory as he netted two goals and now leads the team with nine on the year. It was the first game of his collegiate career in which he had more than one goal.
Unfortunately the Eagles will be without starting forward
Achille Obougou as he was issued a second yellow card late in the match against Radford and will miss the championship game. Obougou missed the first meeting with the Chanticleers as he was out with an injury. Winthrop will have
Marc Segarra (7 goals) and
Patrick Barnes in the lineup, who both missed the first meeting.
The two teams met on Oct. 17 in the regular season in Conway, SC as Coastal Carolina (ranked 10
th at the time) won the match 1-0.
Coastal Carolina (18-1-2) is making its league-best 13
th championship game appearance and its third in the past two years. The Chanticleers have the most championship appearances and league titles in conference history (10). The only two losses in a conference championship game came to Winthrop (2002, 2008).
Winthrop is winners of two straight games and five of its last six games while the Chanticleers have an unbeaten streak of 19 games and have won 15 in a row. The Chanticleers have also recorded shutouts in five of their last eight games.
CCU is led by Attacking Player of the Year Ashton Bennett, Defensive Player of the Year Kjartan Sigurdsson and directed by Coach of the Year Shaun Docking. The Chanticleers have nine players on the 2012 All-Big South Conference Teams and two more on the All-Freshmen Teams.
Bennett led the team with 14 goals while Ricky Garbanzo had 13 goals to lead an offense ranked among the Top 5 nationally in goals per game.
