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ROCK HILL, SC—The regular season comes to an end this weekend as the Winthrop men's soccer team travels to Radford for a Saturday evening match up that could decide the top half of the standings in the Big South Conference. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m.

Winthrop heads to a place it has won just four times in 37 years in need of a victory in order to have a shot at finishing among the Top 4 in the league standings and hosting a first round tournament game. Winthrop is now 9-7-1 overall and 5-3-1 in the Big South and trails High Point by a point, Campbell by two points and Radford by three points heading into the final weekend of the regular season. The Eagles need a win and a loss by Campbell or High Point in order to host the first round of the Big South Tournament.

The Eagles have won three straight games for the second time this season after knocking off Longwood on Wednesday, recording their second straight shutout as they make a run for a top seed.

Dealing with several injuries over the last month, Winthrop has started to get players back into the lineup and the team is gaining momentum having gone 3-0-1 in the last four games. Junior Achille Obougou seems to be healthy again as he's played every minute since missing back-to-back games against #10 Coastal Carolina and Liberty. He scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Gardner-Webb and set up the insurance goal in the win over Longwood on Oct. 31 and now has six goals and two assists on the year.

Senior Alex Isern continues to lead the team in scoring at seven goals and seven assists. Isern is ranked 5^th in goals and 6^th in scoring in the Big South. Another player to return from injury is senior Marc Segarra, who had missed action since Oct. 9 before returning on Oct. 31 and scoring the game-winner against Longwood. He also has six goals on the season.

Over the last few weeks, senior Enrique Miranda has been inserted into the starting line-up in goal and has responded well. In his six starts, the team has not allowed more than one goal and has an impressive goals against average of 0.50 with three shutouts. He recorded back-to-back shutouts this past week for the second time in his career. The last time he did that was in 2009, which coincidently was the last team the Eagles had back-to-back shutouts as a team.

Radford enters the game on a three-game skid and 0-3-1 in the last four games but is looking to close out with a win and send its seniors out on a high note. The Highlanders are also looking for a top seed in next week's tournament as they are 8-5-4 overall and 6-2-1 in the league.

The Highlanders skid began with a 1-0 loss at Virginia Tech and back-to-back home losses in league play to #9 Coastal Carolina and Liberty. Prior to that Radford had gone six games without a loss with a five-game win streak in there.

The Eagles and Highlanders are close in goals per game as Winthrop averages 1.82 (ranked 34^th nationally) and Radford averages 1.71 goals per game (ranked 44^th in the nation). However, statistically the Highlanders are giving up 1.12 goals per game on the year while Winthrop has allowing 1.71. In the last five games, Winthrop has allowed just three goals while Radford has yielded seven.

Radford typically comes out of the gate quick as its outscoring opponents 12-4 in the first half of games, but the majority of goals have come in the second half (17).

Junior midfielder Bernardo Ulmo leads the attack for the Highlanders with 10 goals and three assists. His 10 goals ranks 27^th nationally and is 31^st in the nation in scoring. Junior midfielder Chel Ho Park Kim is second on the team with four goals and four assists while junior Joe Mayer has three goals. Ulmo leads the team with three game-winners while Park and Lucas Diniz each have two.

Senior goalkeeper Ryan Taylor has had a strong season with a 1.05 goals against average and five shutouts. Taylor has been in net for all 17 games.

GAME NOTES
-Winthrop's last visit to Cupp Stadium ended in a 5-0 loss, its worst defeat in the all-time series
-Radford leads the all-time series 14-12-3 and has won two straight against the Eagles
-A win will give Radford a .500 record at home this season
-The last six games in this series, the record is 2-2-2
-Winthrop is looking for its third straight shutout, which hasn't happened since the 2008 season
-The Eagles have only ever had one shutout in Radford (2008, W 3-0)
-The last five goals scored for the Eagles have been by five different players (the previous 11 goals were scored by three different players)
-Eagles are 4-9-1 at Radford all-time
-Winthrop will still be without defenders Daniel Di Biagio, Nick Kowalski, and Josh Choice
-Out of Eagles nine wins, only one game have they allowed more than one goal
-Eagles looking for first 10-win season since 2009 and 14^th under head coach Rich Posipanko