STATESBORO, Ga. – The 2013 Georgia Southern Men's Soccer season gets underway this weekend as the Eagles host the SoCon/Big South Challenge at Eagle Field. GSU opens the regular season in Friday's second game, facing Winthrop at 7:30 p.m. The day starts at 5 p.m. with Gardner-Webb facing Wofford in the opening game of the tournament.

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The Eagles are coming off a 2012 season which saw the program reach the semifinals of the SoCon Tournament for the first time since 2008. Georgia Southern reached the semifinals by defeating UNCG in double overtime, 2-1. The Eagles got hot late in the season, winning four of their last six games to finish fourth in the Southern Conference.

The 2013 preseason began two weeks ago with a 0-0 draw against North Florida and culminated with Witt Carlisle's hat trick last Saturday night against UCF. The Eagles erased a 3-1 deficit with less than 10 minutes left on the clock, but a late game-winner handed Georgia Southern a 4-3 loss in Orlando.

A year ago, Georgia Southern notched a pair of wins in the SoCon/Big South Challenge, downing Winthrop 3-2 on the opening day and besting Gardner-Webb, 2-0, in the finale.

Winthrop went 12-9-2 last season and tallied 39 total goals as a team. The Eagles are without the services of leading scorer Alex Isern who posted nine goals last season. Georgia Southern trails in the all-time series 7-9-2, but has won two of the last three games.

Georgia Southern's second opponent this weekend, Gardner-Webb, went 4-14-2 last season and 3-5-2 in the Big South Conference. The Bulldogs struggled to score, tallying 13 goals while conceding 38. The all-time series between the schools is tied 3-3-1.

Next up for Georgia Southern is a trip to Duke on September 10th. That game in Durham starts at 7 p.m.

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