ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop sent its seniors out with a win as it held on for a 3-2 victory over Longwood, Saturday evening in Big South Conference men's soccer action at Eagle Field.
 
The Eagles recognized its four seniors prior to kickoff and they played key roles in helping the team to its second straight win. Winthrop finishes the season at 5-10-1 overall and 2-6 in the Big South. Longwood falls to 5-11-1 overall and 2-5 in the league.
 
"It was a really good game tonight for the seniors to leave on a positive note," said Winthrop head coach Daniel Ridenour. "Happy for Pietro Bottari, in his final game to get a hat trick in assists as he was very creative today. It was great to get James Skonicki on the field for one last time albeit for a few seconds. Marco (Gatzke) played really well and Hector (Fernandez) was good in goal. I think other than whoever wins the national championship we might be one of the only teams in the country to finish the season with a win. Unfortunately, that doesn't put us in the conference tournament but it's still something for us to grow on and move forward in a positive direction."
 
Junior Nil Vinyals netted the game-winner in the 60^th minute for the Eagles as he was set up by Bottari, who set up all three goals on the night. Bottari played a ball into the box as Vinyals ran on and poked the ball past Longwood goalkeeper Carlos Canas, beating him near post.
 
Winthrop opened the scoring in the 4^th minute when Bottari sent a cross into the box that found its way back to the back post and Leif Estevez struck a shot that looked as if it might have been saved by Canas, but the ball made its way across the line for his first of the season.
 
The lead lasted for 15 and a half minutes when Longwood scored two goals in a five-minute span. The first came in the 19^th minute off a corner kick. Finnlay Wyatt's corner was served to the back post where Tom Devitt headed the ball back across the goal mouth and Marten Pajunurm redirected the ball off his head and into the left corner of the goal. Connor Rea put Longwood up 2-1 in the 34^th minute when he was set up for a one-on-one with Fernandez off a pass by Finnlay and placed the ball into the net.
 
Junior Rasmus Arousell netted his 6^th goal of the season in the 27^th minute to tie the game at 2-2 when Bottari's long throw found him in the box as he settled, turned and fired a shot into the left corner.
 
Winthrop finished with an 18-10 advantage in shots and 8-4 on corners. Fernandez, making his last start for the Eagles, made two saves as he finishes the season 3-0. Canas finished with four saves for the Lancers.