ROCK HILL, SC—Looking to bounce back from its home opening loss, the Winthrop men's soccer team welcomes USC Upstate to Eagle Field Wednesday night for a 6 p.m. matchup.
Winthrop is coming off a loss to 20
th-ranked Charlotte in its home opener on Saturday, which was the first home opening loss since 2005. Following the loss in the home opener in 2005, Winthrop responded with a home win (4-1 over Stetson) and hoping to follow suit on against the Spartans.
The Eagles are 3-2 on the year and look to be getting tad healthier. Sophomore
Max Hasenstab, who had nine goals in 2013, made his first appearance of the season late in the first half against Charlotte and sophomore
Pietro Bottari also returned after missing the previous three games. Junior
Jordan Stoddart started against Charlotte after missing the two previous games.
In the loss to Charlotte the Eagles were shutout for the second time this season and second time in three games so a healthy Hasenstab and Stoddart could be what the offense needs to get going once again.
Through five games the Eagles are scoring 1.20 goals per game and allowing 1.20 goals per game. Senior
Pol Sole leads the team in scoring with four points as he's scored two goals. Junior
Fabian Broich had been starting in goal for the Eagles, but he left the game at UNC Wilmington early in the first half with an injury and is expected to miss a couple of weeks. Winthrop's starter from 2013
Guilherme Avelar has stepped back into being the starter and enters the game with a 1-1 record.
USC Upstate, which returned just four starters from 2013, enters the game at 1-2-1 as it is coming off a 3-1 loss to Liberty in Lexington, VA at the Jay Sculley Memorial Tournament on the campus of the Virginia Military Institute. The Spartans captured their first win of the season at the tournament by defeating VMI 2-0. The win came after two double-overtime games in which the Spartans tied UNC Asheville 3-3 and fell to Gardner-Webb 1-0.
Junior Joe Brinckwirth leads the team with two goals while Rinaldi Bannister has the lone game-winner. The team is averaging 1.50 goals per game while allowing 1.75.
Junior Jack Rubin and sophomore Hassan Haddad have each started two games in goal for the Spartans. Rubin started the last game against Liberty as well as the loss at Gardner-Webb and sports a 1.87 goals against average. Haddad started the opener and was in goal for the win at VMI as he's holding a 1.35 goals against average. The two of them have combined to make 5.25 saves per game which ranks 25
th nationally.
This is the 13
th meeting between Winthrop and USC Upstate as the all-time series is tied at 6-6 with the Eagles capturing the last three meetings. It's the first meeting in the regular season since the 2012 season when the Eagles held on for a 2-1 victory. The only current players part of that victory are
Patrick Barnes,
Magnus Thorsson,
Jordi Lluch and
Kyle Kennedy as they started the game and
Sean Comer came in as a sub.
