Rock Hill, S.C.— Winthrop men's soccer heads to Presbyterian College Wednesday night in its final game of the 2022 season.
SERIES HISTORY VERSUS PRESBYTERIAN COLLEGE
This will be the 26
th meeting all-time between the Eagles and Blue Hose. The two teams last met in the 2021 quarterfinals of the Big South Tournament as the Eagles prevailed 3-0. It was the second straight win over PC as Winthrop took the regular season meeting with a 4-0 victory. In Winthrop's last trip to Clinton, S.C. the two teams closed out the 2021 spring season with a 1-1 draw.
FOOT NOTES
- Eagles wrap-up the 2022 season with this road contest at PC
- Winthrop was last in action on Tuesday, Oct. 18 in a 3-1 home loss to Wofford
- A win pushes the Eagles past the Blue Hose in the league standings and into sixth
- Winthrop has a four-game unbeaten streak in conference play after its 1-1 draw with USC Upstate on Oct. 22
- Eagles won three straight games by the score of 1-0, which was the first time since 2015 an Eagle team pitched three straight shutouts
- It was also the first time in program history the Eagles have won three straight games by a score of 1-0
- Freshman goalkeeper Gareth Shaw has been in goal for the last five games and holds a 0.80 goals against average with 21 saves
- Shaw became the first Winthrop goalkeeper to be in net for three straight shutouts since Fabian Broich in 2015
- For his efforts in the win over Longwood, Shaw was named the Big South Conference Freshman of the Week and then he earned Co-Defensive Player of the week honors after earning a shutout in a 1-0 win at UNC Asheville
- The Eagles have faced one of the toughest non-conference schedules where the opponents have a combined record of 70-42-30
- The combined record of all of opponents Winthrop has faced this season is 106-86-60 and 11-of-14 had winning records when facing the Eagles
- As of Oct. 31, five of the non-conference have winning records and six non-conference opponents are .500 or better (four of the opponents have eight or more wins and three have 10 or more)
- Six of the nine non-conference opponents the Eagles faced have ranked in the region, three in the Top 16 nationally and another received Top 25 votes
- Junior Bryant Jimenez-Pearce and freshman Aiden Williams lead the team with two goals, while Sean Green, Louis Danielson, Christopher Cushing, Ben Goodman, Bryan Marshall and Nick Guido have one goal
- Opened the season with six straight games on the road
- This is the 48th season for the program and this game marks the 965th in the history of the program with 452 wins all-time
- Daniel Ridenhour is in his seventh season as the head coach of the Eagles after serving the previous 12 seasons as an associate/assistant coach
- Winthrop has five Big South Conference Championships, which is the second most by any member in league history
- The Eagles have made six NCAA appearances, also the second-most by any league program
- Winthrop has an all-time record of 355-345-46 while in the Big South and the 355 victories are the second-most all-time
LOOKING BACK AT 2021
- Eagles returned five starters from the 2021 squad that advanced to the Big South Conference Tournament semifinals
- Jimenez-Pearce is the top returning scorer from last season (5g, 3a) as the Eagles lost three of the top four in points
- Sam Jones led all goalkeepers with 12 starts in 2021 and posted a 1.94 goals against average to go along with three shutouts
- Senior Sean Green and junior Grayson Woodard scored multiple goals last season
- Green had three goals and an assist to finish fifth on the team in scoring and Woodard had two goals and an assist to finish sixth in scoring
- The Eagles finished the 2021 season ranked 23rd in the country in scoring offense (2.06 goals per game)
ROAD TRIPPIN'
The Eagles opened the 2022 season with six straight games on the road starting with Mercer. Then they headed back to the state of Georgia to take on Georgia State (Sept. 2) and a few days later headed up to play Wake Forest. The fourth game of the year was at South Carolina followed by games at Charlotte and UNC Greensboro before finally playing at home on Sept. 20. Wake Forest, Charlotte and UNCG are currently ranked in national polls..
CHAMPIONSHIP ANNIVERSARIES
2022 marks the 20
th Anniversary of the first ever Big South Conference men's soccer championship by the Winthrop program. In 2022 the Eagles hosted the conference tournament and faced 13
th-ranked Coastal Carolina. Winthrop was the top seed for the tournament having defeated Coastal Carolina in the regular season, 2-1 in overtime when the Chanticleers were 10
th in the country. Winthrop captured the Big South Championship with a 1-0 victory in overtime thanks to a goal by Francis Wakhisi. The Eagles finished the season 17-7-1 after playing in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in program history.
2012 Championship Game Recap
It is also the 10
th Anniversary for the 2012 Winthrop men's soccer team that took a different path than the 2002 team to earn a berth to the NCAA College Cup. The Eagles battled through injuries in 2012 as it entered the Big South Tournament as the 6
th seed. Winthrop traveled to 3
rd-seeded Liberty in the opening round and pulled off a 2-1 overtime win. In the semifinals the Eagles took on 2
nd-seeded Radford and entered overtime with only 10 men as Alex Isern saved the day with a goal in the first overtime period to advance to the title game. In the title game, the Eagles scored two goals in the final 3:30 of regulation to advance to the program's 5
th NCAA College Cup Appearance. That year the Eagles advanced to the Round of 32 after knocking off SMU on the road in penalties.
LOOKING AHEAD
This is the end of the 2022 season for the Eagles. Thank you to all of the fans for your support this season and hope to see you back at Eagle Field in 2023.
FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA
To keep up with the latest news on the Winthrop men's soccer program follow the Eagles on Twitter (@Winthropsoccer), Instagram (@winthropsoccer) and Facebook (/WinthropUniversitySoccer).
