ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men's soccer team puts its unbeaten streak on the line this weekend when it travels to Macon, GA for the Mercer Classic, facing the host Mercer Bears on Friday, Sept. 13 at 8 p.m.
In addition to its contest on Friday against Mercer, Winthrop will face Atlantic-Sun foe Stetson on Sunday at 1 p.m. The other team participating in the classic is Winthrop's first opponent from the season, Georgia Southern.
The Eagles are off to a 2-0-1 start to the season and is the last team in the Big South Conference without a loss. The Eagles haven't started a season without a loss in four games since the start to the 2001 season in which they won their first four. The best start to a season without a loss for Winthrop came in 2003 and 1994 when those teams started 7-0-1.
Defense has been a major contributor for the Eagles start to the season as they are coming off their first shutout of the season after holding East Tennessee State scoreless in 110 minutes of action. The team held Georgia Southern off the board until 27 seconds remained in the contest and then held Wofford to one goal, which it scored in the 67
th minute.
Junior
Guilherme Avelar has been very strong in goal for the Eagles as he's holding a goals against average of 0.62 with 18 saves. He made seven saves to secure his first shutout at the NCAA Division I collegiate level against ETSU has been helped by a support cast in the back of
Jordi Lluch,
Kyle Kennedy,
Pietro Bottari and
Cody Winter.
Winthrop has had a handful of players getting involved offensively as senior
Adriano Negri leads the team with two goals while freshmen
Max Hasenstab and
Jose Mencia each have one. Senior
Adam Brundle has two assists to lead the team. As a team there are seven players with at least three shots on the season.
Winthrop takes on a Mercer squad that loss nearly 50 percent of its starting 11 from 2012 and is off to an 0-3 start. The Bears finished 2012 at 11-7-2 and finished second in the Atlantic Sun as well as finishing in the Top 10 of the South Region.
Mercer's top returners include senior's Ryan King (2g, 8a, 20 games), Brady O'Brien (1g, 2a, 20 games) and Ehjayson Henry (5g, 4a, 20 games) along with junior Ashani Samuels (3g, 2a, 19 games). The Bears have experience returning in goal as junior Greg Ranjitsingh returns after a stellar 2012 season of an 0.87 goals against average and seven shutouts in 20 starts.
The Bears might be 0-3 on the year, but they've played a competitive schedule and this will mark their home opener for the season. Mercer opened the season at Clemson with a 2-0 loss and fell 3-2 to Elon in double-overtime and 3-1 to UNC Wilmington at the UNCW Tournament last weekend. Mercer has won a total of 30 games in the past three seasons and boasts a home mark of 16-6-1 in that time frame. The home losses have been at the hands of Florida Gulf Coast (twice), #12 Central Florida, Jacksonville (twice) and the University of Alabama-Birmingham.
While Mercer has three players still on the roster from its 2010 team that defeated the Eagles 3-0 in Rock Hill (Heavner, O'Brien and Ryan King), there isn't a single Winthrop player on this year's roster saw action in that game. Red-shirt juniors
Nick Nova and
Josh Choice are the only two current players that were involved in the game.
The all-time series is tied at 2-2 with the 3-0 loss to Mercer in 2010 being the last meeting. Winthrop is 1-1 in Macon, but lost 2-0 in its last trip in 2005.
Sunday's game will be the sixth meeting between Winthrop and Stetson. Winthrop leads the all-time series 3-1-1, but the last time the two teams squared off in 2007 the teams battled to a 2-2 draw. This will be the third time the teams have met on a neutral field with Winthrop winning 3-1 in 2003 in Jacksonville, FL and Stetson winning 4-1 in 2004 in Statesboro, GA.
The Hatters are off to a 1-1-1 start and coming off a 1-0 overtime victory at home over University of Massachusetts-Lowell. Stetson lost at South Florida 1-0 and opened the season with a 2-2 tie against Grand Canyon at home.
The Hatters return seven starters and 13 total players from last season's team to go along with 14 newcomers. Stetson was 3-10-2 in 2012, but lost six games by one goal and two more by just two goals.
Stetson will face Georgia Southern at 5 p.m. on Friday, prior to the Eagles matchup with Mercer.
