ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop men's soccer looks to extend its winning streak as it heads toward the coast to take on Marist College and UNC Wilmington at the SpringHill Suites Classic this weekend.
The Eagles open up on Friday, Sept. 9 against Marist College at 5 p.m. and will then face the host Seahawks on Sunday, Sept. 11 at 2:30 p.m.
Since dropping the season opener at North Florida, the Eagles have reeled off three straight wins that include back-to-back shutout victories. Winthrop is 3-1 for the third straight season and the 13
th time in the history of the program.
So far the Eagles have been balanced offensively with four different goal scorers and solid in the back allowing just one goal in the last 285 minutes and 30 seconds. During that time junior's
Hector Fernandez and
Kenneth Perkinson have been solid in goal for the Eagles as each recorded a shutout at the Big South/SoCON Challenge. Junior
Rasmus Arousell leads the team with five points (2g, 1a).
Defensively the Eagles have been solid as a core on the back line, but it was freshman
Francesco Tiozzo that garnered some national attention this week after being named to the College Soccer News and TopDrawerSoccer.com National Team of the Week. He was also named the Big South Conference Defensive Player of the Week. In addition to helping the team record two shutout wins, Tiozzo scored the golden goal against Wofford.
This will be the first ever meeting between Winthrop and Marist College. The Red Foxes enter this weekend's competition at 2-0-1 with wins over Hartwick and Army which has them ranked 4
th in the NSCAA Northeast Region. Sophomore Cameron Harr leads the team with five goals and this past week earned Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Offensively Player of the Week honors. Junior goalkeeper Mark Rajovic was named the league's Defensive Player of the Week as he's been in goal for all three games and holds a 1.24 goals against average.
UNCW and Winthrop have met five times with the Seahawks owning a 3-2 advantage in the series. The last two meetings have come in Wilmington with the Eagles winning 2-1 in 2014 and falling to the 24
th-ranked Seahawks 1-0 in 2010.
This season UNCW is off to a 2-0 start with wins on the road at Campbell (4-1) and UMBC (3-1). Julio Moncada and Stian Sandbekkhaug lead the team with two goals apiece while the team has had five different goal scorers. At 3.5 goals per game they are among the Top 5 scoring teams in the country over the first couple of weeks. Moncada joined Winthrop's Tiozzo on the TopDrawerSoccer.com's National Team of the Week.
