Box Score
WinthropPhotos.com
Photo Gallery

ROCK HILL, SC – Winthrop tied a school record for the most goals at home in a Big South Conference game (4-1 against VMI in 2005) with a 4-0 win against Charleston Southern Saturday afternoon at Eagle Field. 

The Lady Eagles improve to 5-4 overall and 2-0 in Big South play and are in the midst of a four game win streak, while the Buccaneers drop to 3-5-1 overall and 1-1 in Big South play.

“We had a true team win today, it was a good win” said head coach Spencer Smith.  “Defensively our back four plus Kelly Clark and Okina Crawley played really well.  They were the best they have been all season long.  Offensively we created good opportunities.  Taylor Walton and Imani Ervins came in and gave us great effort.”

Walton and Ervins' great effort resulted in Ervins first career goal in the 34^th minute.  On the play, Walton earned her first career assist beating her defender to the end line before cutting her pass back to Ervins for the goal.  Ervins one touch shot came from the middle of the 6-yard box beating the goalkeeper high.

The Lady Eagles played an aggressive first half with an 8-4 edge in shots.  Winthrop forced Charleston Southern goalkeeper Caitlin Cody to make six saves in the half.  Walton and Taylor Coleman led the Lady Eagles with two shots each in the half, while Allison Lewis attempted two shots leading the way for the Buccaneers.  Amelia Henderson stopped three first half shots in net for Winthrop.

In the second half, the Lady Eagles continued their aggressive play attempting 16 shots in the half, scoring on three occasions.  The first goal of the half came in the 64^th minute when Walton recorded her second assist of the afternoon in similar fashion to how she created the first goal.  Walton once again beat a defender to the end line before cutting in and playing a cross into Ariel Kunde.  Kunde's first touch took her away from the defense before she shot low to the far side of goal past Cody.

Charleston Southern had a couple of opportunities to cut into the Winthrop lead including a 68^th minute attempt from Rebecca Hollstegge.  Hollstegge got on the end of a cross after a defensive mix-up, however, her headed attempt flew over the empty net.  In
the 77^th minute, Chelsea Frankeny's shot attempt forced Henderson to make a diving save to preserve the shutout.

Winthrop pushed two more goals across to stretch the final margin to 4-0 with goals coming from Krystyna Freda and Devin Puckett.  Freda's goal in the 76^th minute was assisted by Grace Radler's team leading fifth assist of the season.  With five assists, Radler is one away from tying the Winthrop single season assist record which is currently held by three former Lady Eagles.  Puckett's goal in the 86^th minute was assisted by Allie VandeWater's cross from the far side of the field.  Puckett got on the end of the cross beating Cody at the near post.  VandeWater now has 10 career assists tying her with Allison Stoltz (2003-2006) for fourth in career assists.

The Lady Eagles ended the game with a 24-11 advantage in shots.  Freda led all players with four shots in an evenly distributed Winthrop attack which saw 12 different players record a shot-on-goal.  In a losing effort, Cody still played quite well for the Buccaneers recording 13 saves on the afternoon.  Henderson ended the game with four saves for Winthrop.

The Lady Eagles will return to action on Thursday, September 27^th at 7 p.m. when they conclude their five game home stretch against the High Point Panthers at Eagle Field.