Eagles Fall at Winthrop, 5-4, in Overtime Thriller
9/2/2011 12:54:00 AM | Men's Soccer
ROCK HILL, S.C. - Georgia Southern Men's Soccer erased an early 2-0 deficit against Winthrop and forced overtime with three game-tying goals, but fell 5-4 in overtime on Thursday night (Sept. 1st) in the SoCon/Big South Shootout. Luigi Clendening scored his third goal of the season early and David Vargas Masís added two more as Georgia Southern circled the wagons to score three second half goals. The defeat, however, drops Georgia Southern to 1-1 on the year while Winthrop improves to 2-0.
Winthrop sprinted out to a 2-0 lead off pair of goals off the foot of Akeem Matthews in the 16th and 18th minutes.
Senior Luigi Clendening, (Augusta, Ga.) however, cut the Winthrop lead in half by finishing off a Georgia Southern counterattack in the 29th minute. Clendening along with Hunter Norton (Evans, Ga.) and Ethan LaPan (Martinez, Ga.) matriculated the ball down the pitch with Norton's pass finding Clendening at 15 yards from goal. As the defense closed on Clendening, he chipped the Winthrop goalkeeper, lobbing the ball into the upper 90 of the goal.
Clendening nearly brought the Eagles level in the final 10 seconds of the first half as he stole the ball around 35 yards from goal. The hit man dribbled in as the seconds ticked down and ripped a shot with five seconds left in the half that beat the Winthrop goalkeeper but sailed inches wide of the post as the half came to an end.
Freshman David Vargas Masís (Cartago, Costa Rica) opened his scoring account just four minutes into the second half with the Eagles' first equalizer of the night. The quick footed forward won a turnover in the attacking third and ripped a left-footed shot across the face of goal and into the net to tie the match at 2-2.
Winthrop answered in the 53rd minute on Matthews' third goal of the night. The freshman made a strong run through the Eagle defense to single-handedly give Winthrop a 3-2 lead.
Georgia Southern drew level again in the 78th minute off a second goal by Vargas Masís. A Winthrop turnover was won by Clendening who passed the ball to Vargas Masís, who scored one-on-one with the Winthrop goalkeeper.Winthrop responded just 25 seconds later with a one-touch shot off the boot of Marc Segarra. The Eagles' Tomas Brennan crossed the ball to the center of the six yard box where Segarra scored to give the hosts a 4-3 lead.
Norton scored Georgia Southern's third equalizer of the night in the 82nd minute. A quick free kick by Georgia Southern caught Winthrop on the back foot and allowed Norton to score and level the match at 4-4 to force overtime.Two minutes into the second overtime period, Winthrop snatched victory with knuckleball shot from 35-yards off the foot of Adam Brundle. The goal gave Winthrop the 5-4 win.
The Eagles face Gardner-Webb in the conclusion of the SoCon/Big South Shootout on Saturday, September 3rd, at 4:30 p.m.
Fans can follow their Eagles at GeorgiaSouthernEagles.com or receive short updates at facebook.com/GSAthletics, twitter.com/GSAthletics or on Google+ at gplus.to/GSAthletics.
