ELON, NC—The Winthrop men's soccer season came to an end with a 3-0 loss to Elon in the opening round of the College Cup, Thursday night at Rudd Field.

Winthrop finishes the season at 11-7-2 while Elon improves to 14-5-1 and advances to the second round of the tournament to take on Clemson on Sunday.

The final scored doesn't reflect the stats as the Eagles finished with a 20-12 advantage in shots, but it was Elon goalkeeper Matthew Jegier that stole the show. Jegier turned away every quality shot the Eagles had and when he didn't his teammates were there to back him up. He finished with seven saves to earn the shutout.

The Eagles trailed 1-0 at the half, but turned up the offensive attack in the final 45 minutes and created 14 shots, but couldn't break through. The goal came in the 34^th minute as Jaiden Fortune served a ball between the defense and Fabian Broich as James Brace slid toward goal and redirected the service into the lower left corner.

Magnus Thorsson tested Jegier in the 70^th minute as he curled a shot from 25 yards out toward the top left corner, but Jegier was just able to get his fingertips on the ball and force it wide. Less than a minute later Marco Gatzke found Max Hasenstab off a corner kick service, but his header toward goal was cleared off the line by a defender. In the 74^th minute, Hasenstab was set up with a one-on-one toward goal as he tried to place his shot into the left corner of the goal as he crossed the 18-yard box, but Jegier stuck his foot out and made a save with his toes to keep Elon ahead, 1-0.

As the Eagles continued to press the Phoenix made it 2-0 with a counter attack goal in the 79^th minute. Eduardo Alvarez cut back across the 18 and curled a shot into the upper right portion of the goal and off the post into the back of the net. Winthrop kept pressing and Elon was able to get a third goal in the 86^th minute.

Broich finished the game with three saves, including a big one at the time when he stopped a shot by Caue Da Silva with a free look toward goal in the 64^th minute.

The loss also marks the end of an era as Winthrop head coach Rich Posipanko coached his final game for Winthrop. Posipanko finishes his career with 392 wins in 37 seasons coaching in the NCAA and 275 wins while at the helm of the Eagles.