ROCK HILL, SC—The regular season comes to an end on Wednesday as the Winthrop men's soccer team travels to Radford, VA to take on 20
th-ranked Radford at 6 p.m.
The Eagles enter the game with an 11-4-1 mark overall and 5-2-1 league record and are looking for their first 12-win season since 2008. Winthrop has won 11 games in each of the last three seasons.
Winthrop is coming off a 3-1 victory at Campbell, which was the program's first win over the Camels since 1987. That win gave the Eagles a chance to finish among the Top 4 in the league standings and host a first round game for the Big South Conference Tournament. A win against the Highlanders would secure that, but a tie or loss and the Eagles will have to depend on some favorable results over the final week of conference action for them to host.
Sophomore
Max Hasenstab and senior
Pol Sole have been on fire offensively as both scored in two of the last three games. Hasenstab leads the team in goals with eight (11 games) while Sole leads in points with 20 (7g, 6a). Hasenstab, despite missing five games, is third in the league in goals and second in goals per game. Sole is tied for third in the league in points and is tied for fourth in total goals.
Sole has a point in nine of the last 10 games and has moved up to 39
th nationally in total points and 43
rd in points per game. He is also ranked 34
th in total assists. Hasenstab has worked his way into the national leaders as he's 34
th in total goals and 45
th in total points.
Sole and Hasenstab have been a main focal point of the offense over the past few games, but it has been a very well balanced offense that makes the Eagles the second best scoring team in the nation at 2.38 goals per game. Junior
Magnus Thorsson has five goals while freshman
Charles Coulson and junior
Jordan Stoddart each have four while a total of different players have scored.
The Eagles offense has been extremely impressive in the second half as 24 of the team's 38 goals have come in the final 45 minutes of the game. The Eagles have outscored their opponents 24-7 in the second half and almost double them up in shots as well.
Junior
Fabian Broich made his first start in nearly two months after missing time with a leg injury as he made six saves to earn the win at Campbell and is now 3-1 on the year with a 0.65 goals against average. He has now allowed just one goal in his last 148 minutes and 13 seconds of action and two goals in the last 238:13.
This will mark the 33
rd meeting all-time between Radford and Winthrop, which has been a very competitive series over the years. Winthrop won last year's meeting 1-0 in Rock Hill to but Radford holds a 15-14-3 advantage in the all-time series. After losing three straight years in which they were outscored 10-1, the Eagles have won the last two meetings by a single-goal. Radford has a 14-12-3 record against the Eagles in Big South regular season games.
The Highlanders are coming off a 1-0 victory over Coastal Carolina as it assured themselves of the Big South Tournament's top seed and at least a share of the regular season title. Radford is 11-3-2 overall and has a perfect 8-0 record in the league.
Offensively the Highlanders are averaging 1.81 goals per game, which ranks 26
th nationally and allowing just 0.85 goals against (41
st nationally).
Freshman Kieran Roberts, senior Stephen Hudgens and senior Dario Redondo are the top scorers for Radford. Roberts has a team-high 13 points with five goals and three assists while Hudgens has five goals as well and Redondo has four. Hudgens and Roberts are tied for 35
th in game-winning goals on the year with three each while freshman Fraser Colmer leads the team with six assists, which ranks 34
th nationally in total assists and 55
th in assists per game.
The defense ranks first in the Big South in goals against average and has a league-high seven shutouts as it is anchored by redshirt freshman Aitor Pouseu Blanco, who has played every second this season.
