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ROCK HILL, SC—Winthrop men's soccer will open its Big South Conference slate on Saturday, Sept. 24 at 7 p.m. against Liberty at Eagle Field.

It is also the home opener of the 2016 season as the Eagles faced their first seven opponents of the season on the road with three tournaments and a single-game at Appalachian State this past Tuesday.

The game will cap off a full day of soccer dedicated to raising money for breast cancer. Winthrop's women's team will play at 1 p.m. against Radford followed by a 4 p.m. "Guns-N-Hoses" charity game between the Rock Hill Police and Fire departments. A minimum donation of $5 gains fans admission to all three games. The men's and women's game will both air on the Big South Network.

Winthrop enters league play with a 3-3-1 mark and looks for its third straight win to open up conference action. The Eagles have faced the Flames the past two seasons in their league opener and earned a 2-0 win in 2014 and a double-overtime 2-1 victory in 2015. This will be just the second time in the program's history the Eagles face the same opponent three straight years in a conference opener. The only other time Winthrop faced Charleston Southern four straight seasons in its opener.

This will be the 39^th meeting all-time and 26^th in a regular season matchup as the Flames hold a 21-14-3 lead all-time. This is a series that was dominated by Liberty from 1994-2003, winning 13 consecutive meetings. However, the Eagles ended that stretch in 2004 with a 7-5 victory and since then are 11-6-2 against the Flames. Winthrop is 3-1-1 against Liberty in its last five trips to Eagle Field and has won three straight over the Flames.

When Winthrop and Liberty get together fans can expect a competitive, tight contest as five of the last seven meetings have gone to overtime. The meetings have gone into overtime in eight of the last 15 contests with six of them resulting in a winner.

On Sept. 20 the Eagles played their first mid-week contest as they drew 1-1 at Appalachian State on a goal in the 78^th minute by Marco Gatzke. It was the first goal of his career at Winthrop as he became the team's fifth different goal scorer on the season. Junior Rasmus Arousell continues to lead the team in scoring at five points with two goals and an assist while five others are tied with two points.

Junior Kenneth Perkinson made his third consecutive start against the Mountaineers and finished with eight saves, a season-high. His career-best in 10, which he did twice at UNC Pembroke in 2015.

Liberty is also 3-3-1 on the year as it is coming off a 3-1 loss at North Carolina State in its final preparation for Big South play. Like the Eagles, Liberty has the same 0-2-1 mark over its last three games so both teams are looking to turn the tide.

Leading Liberty offensively is Tresor Mbuyu with four goals and an assist (nine points) as he is tied for 4^th in the Big South with 1.29 points per game and his four goals are tied for second most. Jovanni Chavez has three goals and two assists.

Freshman James Knoebel has started all seven games in goal as he's holding a 1.37 goals against average and averaging six saves a contest.