ROCK HILL, SC— The Winthrop men's soccer team will put its seven-game unbeaten streak on the line Wednesday evening at 6 p.m. when it hosts Gardner-Webb at Eagle Field.
The Eagles spent the last two weeks ranked nationally before falling out of the polls following their 1-1 draw at UNC Asheville as they are now 9-2-1 overall and 3-0-1 in the conference. Although they dropped out of the TopDrawerSoccer.com Top 25, they came in 31
st in the College Soccer New Poll.
Throughout the season the Eagles have relied heavily on offense for its wins as they rank fourth nationally in scoring at 2.5 goals per game. Winthrop has almost 100 more shots than its opponents this season and has more than doubled up on total goals, 30-14. Senior
Pol Sole, junior
Magnus Thorsson and sophomore
Max Hasenstab lead the team with five goals each. Junior
Jordan Stoddart has four goals while freshman
Sam Schmidt has three.
Sole leads the team in total points with 14 as he is also tied for first on the team in assists with junior
Jordi Lluch. Senior
Cody Winter and junior
Patrick Barnes each have three assists.
Winthrop is 5-1 at home this season with the only loss coming to 20
th-ranked Charlotte, which is now ranked seventh in the country by multiple polls. The Eagles have allowed 1.67 goals per game at home, but have scored 3.17. In games away from home the Eagles have averaged 1.40 goals per game and allowed 0.80.
Hasenstab has been the team's top scorer during the team's current unbeaten streak with five goals and an assist.
Magnus Thorsson has four goals during the streak while Sole and Stoddart have three.
The next few weeks will be key for the Eagles as they approach the stretch run of the schedule with five games remaining beginning with the Runnin' Bulldogs. Winthrop will host High Point on Saturday for "Senior Day" and its final home game before hitting the road at 20
th-ranked Coastal Carolina, Campbell and Radford. As of Tuesday, Oct. 21 three of the final four opponents are ranked in the Top 4 of the league standings.
Gardner-Webb is 2-9-1 on the year and coming off a 2-1 loss at home to Campbell and having lost three of its last four games. The Runnin' Bulldogs are 0-3-1 in the league with all three losses by a single goal.
Gardner-Webb is scoring 1.17 goals per game while allowing 2.27 goals per game. The offense is led by Ali Al-Gashamy with six goals and four assists for 16 points, which ranks third in the Big South and 42
nd nationally. Craig Saby, Filipe Conceicao, and Sami Jill each have two goals.
Matthew Swan has been the mainstay in goal for Gardner-Webb as he's started all 11 games he's played and has a 2.38 goals against average with one shutout. He is ranked 35
th nationally in saves per game.
This will mark the 20
th meeting all-time between Winthrop and Gardner-Webb. The Eagles lost 1-0 in Boiling Springs, NC last season and have lost two of the last three meetings and three of the last five. The Eagles have won four straight over the Runnin' Bulldogs at Eagle Field with the last two by the score of 2-1, which included an overtime victory in 2012. Winthrop leads the all-time series 13-4-2 and is 4-1-1 against Gardner-Webb in conference regular season matchups.
