ROCK HILL, SC—Coming off a win at Jacksonville last Sunday the Winthrop men's soccer team hopes to carry momentum into its matches against Mercer and Wofford College this weekend.
The Eagles head to Spartanburg, SC for the Big South/SoCON Challenge to play be played on the campus of Wofford College. Winthrop will take on Mercer on Friday, Sept. 2 at 5 p.m. and then face the Terriers on Sunday, Sept. 4 at 3:30 p.m.
This challenge started back in 2011 when the Eagles hosted Wofford College and Georgia Southern. Winthrop has won the challenge three out of the four years as the event changes venues each year. The other Big South Conference representative is Gardner-Webb.
On Friday the Eagles will face a Mercer team that is off to a 2-0 start and coming off a 3-2 overtime upset of 24
th-ranked South Carolina on the road. This will be the sixth meeting with the Bears all-time as the Eagles hold an edge in the series 3-2.
The last time Winthrop faced Mercer was 2013 in Macon, GA and the Eagles came away with a 2-1 win. This will be the first time they've met at a neutral site.
Winthrop is led offensively by junior
Rasmus Arousell, who netted both goals in the win at Jacksonville. Freshman
Jogvan Jacobsen and junior
Nil Vinyals each have an assist on the season. On the opening weekend the Eagles used different goalies in each game, which could be the same circumstances this weekend in Spartanburg.
Mercer has four goals in two games and all four goals have come from different players but Will Bagrou and Kobe Perez lead the team with three points. J.R. DeRose started the opener in goal for the Bears and recorded a shutout against Georgia State but it was Jeremy Booth in net against South Carolina.
Wofford College and Winthrop meet for the 35
th time and the 21
st time since both schools were members at the NCAA Div. I level. The Eagles have enjoyed success against the Terriers in recent years, but lost 3-0 in the matchup in Rock Hill a year ago. Winthrop had won the previous four meetings. Winthrop is 8-6-1 against Wofford all-time in Spartanburg.
The Terriers are off to a 2-0 start after wins over Presbyterian College and Davidson. They've outscored their opponents 5-2 led by five different goal scorers. Andreas Suri leads the team with three points while four others have two points. Garrett Closs, who recorded the shutout against the Eagles last season, has been in goal for both games, combining for seven saves.
