ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men's soccer team will put its unbeaten streak on the line Tuesday night at home as it takes on the College of Charleston at 7 p.m. in just the second home contest of the season.
Winthrop is tied with the 1994 team for the best start to a season without a loss and has gotten off to the great start behind an offense that leads the country with 2.88 goals per game.
The Eagles face a College of Charleston team that it hasn't enjoyed a lot of success against over the years. In the all-time series, the Cougars lead 17-7 and have won the previous three meetings. All three wins were by at least two goals. Winthrop is 3-8 all-time at home against the Cougars.
Winthrop has won four games in a row and is coming off a 5-1 victory at the Virginia Military Academy over the weekend in its Big South Conference opener. It was the second time this season Winthrop had scored at least five goals in a game.
Freshman
Max Hasenstab is coming off a week in which he had three goals and an assist to help Winthrop capture two wins. Hasenstab scored the game-winning goal in each win and has now scored in four straight contests. For his efforts last week, Hasenstab was named the Big South Conference Attacking Player of the Week. He now has six goals and five assists and is ranked seventh nationally in scoring.
Senior
Achille Obougou has also been very involved offensively with two goals and two assists in the last three games. He assisted on the game-winning goal against UNC Greensboro last week. Senior
Adam Brundle picked up two assists in the win at VMI and is now second on the team with four.
Junior
Guilherme Avelar was named the Big South Conference Defensive Player of the Week on Monday to complete a sweep of the weekly awards by Winthrop. Avelar posted his second shutout of the season at UNCG and made two saves in the win over VMI. It was the second time this season Avelar has garnered the weekly honor. He's holding a 0.777 goals against average and a save percentage of 0.854.
College of Charleston enters the game at 1-6 on the year and coming off a 1-0 loss at home to UNC Wilmington. The Cougars have played three ranked opponents and are 1-2 in those games with the lone win of the season coming against #27 Xavier.
The Cougars lost half of its starting lineup from 2012 and has struggled to score goals so far this season as Xavier Rajpaul has both for the team. The top four scorers and seven of the top eight scorers from a season ago are gone.
Senior Kees Heemskerk started all 19 games he played in during the 2012 season and this season has a 1-1 record in two games played and a 1.33 goals against average but has been out since the second half of the win over Xavier. Sophomore Alex Young and freshman Ryan McLaughlin have both seen action in Heemskerk's absence. Young is 0-3 with a 1.13 goals against average and was in net in the loss against UNCW. McLaughlin is 0-2 with a 2.50 goals against average in two games played.
In the Eagles seven wins against College of Charleston, only once have they recorded a shutout. That came on Oct. 20, 2009 in a 1-0 victory.
