Box Score
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LEXINGTON, VA— Freshman Max Hasenstab capped off an impressive week with two goals and an assist to lead Winthrop to a 5-1 victory over the Virginia Military Institute, Saturday afternoon at Patchin Field in Big South Conference men's soccer action.

It was the conference opener for Winthrop, which improves to 7-0-1 on the season and ties the 1994 team for the best start without a loss in school history. It's the fourth straight victory in a conference opener and the sixth straight win over VMI, which falls to 1-7-1 overall and 1-2 in the Big South.

"Happy to get out with a win," said Winthrop head coach Rich Posipanko. "I thought the first 20 minutes was as good as it gets. I think to be a really good team we have to put more complete games together."

Winthrop came out aggressively and it paid off in the 9^th minute as Hasenstab received the ball from Adam Brundle and fired a shot from 20 yards that made its way through traffic and into the net. The goal came after Winthrop had a couple of good scoring chances early and three corner kicks as well.

It wasn't long after Hasenstab scored his second of the day and put Winthrop ahead 2-0 as he found himself with a one-on-one and chipped the ball over the keeper as he came to close out Hasenstab.

Midway through the first half, VMI took advantage of a corner kick as Travis Borkey served up a perfect ball to the head of Aaron White, who redirected the ball into the left side of the goal for his second on the season. The goal came about a minute after Achille Obougou nearly made it 3-0 in favor of the Eagles after his shot hit the post and stayed out of the net.

The Eagles started the second half with the same offensive pressure it did in the first half and it paid off in the 55^th minute as Obougou netted his fourth goal of the season. Adam Brundle played a long ball as Magnus Thorsson headed the ball on to Obougou as he took care of the rest.

The fourth goal of the match came in the 70^th minute when Mason Lavallet and Hasenstab passed back-and-forth until Lavallet let a shot fly inside the box for his first goal of the season.

Senior Adriano Negri came on as a sub in the 74^th minute for Obougou and found the net in the 86^th minute to make it 5-1 in favor of the Eagles. Jose Mencia played the ball to Sean Comer, who quickly played the ball to Negri for the goal.

It's the fourth straight game in which Hasenstab has scored a goal and now has five goals and four assists over that span. Obougou now has a three-game point streak.

Guilherme Avelar made two saves on the day to earn the win in net while his counterpart Daniel Kitchen finished with four saves. Winthrop finished with a 23-8 advantage in shots, including a 15-3 advantage at the half.

Now reaching seven wins on the year, the Eagles are just three shy of the program's 400^th victory all-time. Posipanko is also now just three wins shy of 250 victories as head coach of the Eagles as he has 364 career wins.

Winthrop will be back in action on Tuesday, Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. when it returns home for a non-conference matchup with Southern Conference foe College of Charleston.