ROCK HILL, SC—The Winthrop men's soccer team looks to maintain its momentum coming off a win at UNC Wilmington last Sunday as it hosts 20
th-ranked Charlotte, Saturday evening at 6 p.m. at Eagle Field.
Winthrop enters the contest at 3-1 as it takes on a Charlotte squad that is 2-1 and coming off a 2-0 road win at UNC Greensboro Tuesday night.
The Eagles are averaging 1.5 goals per game despite getting shutout in the 1-0 loss to Elon on Friday, Sept. 5. Winthrop has been without starting forward
Max Hasenstab the first four games of the season and starter
Jordan Stoddart the last two games but the team has continued to create scoring chances and has been able to find the back of the net when needed. Hasenstab scored nine goals and assisted on five in 2013, but has been hampered by an injury so far in 2014. Stoddart scored in his first ever collegiate game, but suffered an injury versus Georgia Southern and couldn't make the trip to Wilmington, NC.
Senior
Pol Sole has scored two goals on the year and has scored them in two of the last three games. He scored the game-winner at UNC Wilmington and the first of three in the win over Georgia Southern.
Winthrop's
Fabian Broich started the first four games in goal but left the UNCW match early on with an injury and is expected to miss a couple of weeks. Senior
Guilherme Avelar, who started 15 games for the Eagles in 2013, relieved Broich and helped the Eagles earn the win. He's expected to make the start in net against the 49ers.
Charlotte is on the road for the second straight game as it bounced back from its first loss of the season with the shutout victory at UNCG.
Junior Kyle Parker's first goal of the season was on a penalty in the 5
th minute that proved to be the game winner over the Spartans. Charlotte added its second goal in the second half by senior Monbo Bokar, who scored his team-leading second goal of the season. Parker led the 49ers in scoring in 2013 with 11 goals and three assists but is the only returning player among the top four scorers from a season ago.
Manning the goal in all three games has been junior Austin Pack, who made one save to earn his first shutout of the season against UNCG.
This will mark the 19
th meeting all-time between the teams as Charlotte has won four straight in the series and leads it 12-3-3. The series began in 1975, the first season for Winthrop soccer as the team's played 11 times before the Eagles move to the NCAA Division I level. All three wins over Charlotte came prior to the move to Div. 1 as the Eagles are 0-5-2 since their transition.
