Rock Hill, S.C.— In search of its first win of the season, the Winthrop men's soccer team heads down I-77 Friday night to take on the University of South Carolina.
SERIES HISTORY VERSUS SOUTH CAROLINA
This marks the 10
th meeting all-time as the Gamecocks have won all nine meetings, including last year's meeting in Columbia. The Eagles fell 4-1 at South Carolina last season.
FOOT NOTES
- Playing fourth straight game on the road to start the season and coming off a 5-1 loss at 4th-ranked Wake Forest
- Eagles have allowed 14 goals on the year, 11 of which came over a span of 180 minutes (2nd half at Mercer through first half at Wake Forest)
- Freshman Aiden Williams notched his second goal of his career in the loss at Wake Forest
- Williams is tied with nine other players in the Big South for second in the league for total goals and tied for second with one other player for goals per game (0.67)
- Eagles return five starters from the 2021 squad that advanced to the Big South Conference Tournament semifinals
- Bryant 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)
- Opening the season with six straight games on the road
- This is the 48th season for the program and this game marks the 952nd in the history of the program with 450 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 353-338-45 while in the Big South and the 353 victories are the second-most all-time (currently six ahead of Radford
ROAD TRIPPIN'
The Eagles open the 2022 season with six straight games on the road starting with Mercer. Then they'll head back to the state of Georgia to take on Georgia State (Sept. 2) and then a few days later head up to play Wake Forest. The fourth game of the year will be at South Carolina followed by games at Charlotte and UNC Greensboro before finally playing at home on Sept. 20. Wake Forest, Georgia State and UNCG have appeared in preseason national polls. Five of the six opponents finished among the Top 46 in the nation in scoring and three were in the Top 30.
LOOKING AHEAD
Winthrop will head just up the road for its next contest when it plays its 5
th straight road game at nationally-ranked Charlotte, Tuesday, Sept. 13 at 7 p.m.
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