BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. – Georgia Southern Men's Soccer closed the opening weekend of the 2014 season with a 3-1 loss to Winthrop in the final day of the 2014 Big South/SoCon Challenge. The Eagles are back at home on Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Mercer for the 2014 home opener.
"I was encouraged by the way we battled back from the 1-0 deficit to get the penalty and tie the game," said Head Coach
Kevin Kennedy. "It was disappointing to give up a goal so quickly after we tied the match. After they went up 2-1, we changed a couple things and Winthrop was able to get a counterattack for a goal. Now we've got to shift our focus to Mercer on Thursday night."
Winthrop took the early advantage in the 21st minute off a penalty kick goal from Pol Sole. The Eagles earned the spot kick when Georgia Southern goalkeeper
Jack Falle took down a Winthrop attacker in a 1v1 situation.
Winthrop out-shot the Eagles 13-1 in the first half, but the Eagles were able to get back on level terms in the 70th minute with a penalty of their own.
Jeremy Rector buried the penalty to level the score at 1-1. The Eagles earned the trip to the spot when junior
Matt Melton freed
Emmanuel Raji who was taken down in the box to force the referee's whistle.
The 1-1 score, however, was short lived as Winthrop went back on top just 52 seconds after the goal from Georgia Southern. A Magnus Thorsson through ball sprung Charles Coulson 1v1 with Falle. Coulson hesitated and shot low to give Winthrop a 2-1 advantage.
Winthrop's third goal came in the 79th minute from Sam Schmidt. He was played in and deked the Eagle goalkeeper to earn space on the end line. He then curled the ball around the post and in the net to extend the lead to 3-1.
For the game, Georgia Southern was out-shot 26-7 on the day with nine saves from Falle in net for the Eagles.
Georgia Southern returns to Statesboro for the 2014 home opener on Thursday night at Eagle Field. Mercer visits Bulloch County for the 7 p.m. game which can be seen live on GS All-Access exclusively on GSEagles.com. Admission to the game is free.
Georgia Southern Athletics provides up-to-date information on all its sports through its official website, GSEagles.com, through social media channels facebook.com/GSAthletics and twitter.com/GSAthletics. To purchase tickets call 1-800-GSU-WINS.
