Unbeaten Streak Comes To An End For Men’s Soccer Tuesday Night Against College Of Charleston

ROCK HILL, SC— Winthrop men’s soccer unbeaten streak came to an end Tuesday evening in a 2-1 loss at home to College of Charleston in non-conference action.

The Cougars were on the end of a fortunate deflection as Tucker Coon’s shot from 30 yards was headed wide right of the goal when it hit a Winthrop defender and redirected toward the net and past a diving Guilherme Avelar, who tried to make up the lost ground on the redirect. The goal came in the 88th minute.

With the loss, the Eagles fall to 7-1-1 on the year and have now lost four straight to the College of Charleston, which improves to 2-6.

Trailing 1-0 in the second half, the Eagles finally converted on one of their several chances going forward in the 62nd minute as freshman Max Hasenstab found the back of the net for the fifth straight game. Adam Brundle played the ball wide to CJ Miller and he delivered the ball into the box where Hasenstab collected it in open space and then placed the shot past the keeper.

Winthrop had a couple of opportunities going forward early on in the game, but it was the College of Charleston that grabbed the lead in the 31st minute. After a long corner kick by the Cougars, they collected the ball and played it around back toward the middle where Connor Coons let a shot fly that was blocked and popped up into the air. Both teams challenged for the ball in the air and Winthrop forward Achille Obougou went down. The ball was still in the air and Kyle Kennedy went up for a challenge and then hit the deck and remained there after the play. The Eagles back line shorthanded, the Cougars played a ball over the top of the defense that looked like Avelar was going to collect but he and Adan Noel were on the ball at the same time and the ball popped out right on Noel’s foot as he placed the ball into the open net from four yards out.

Both teams pressed forward and had scoring opportunities in hopes of taking the lead until the Cougars did so in the 88th minute.

The shot advantage favored College of Charleston 18-17 and corner kicks 6-5. Avelar finished with a save while his counterpart Alex Young finished with six.

Winthrop will be out of action until Tuesday, Oct. 8 when it hosts Campbell in its first conference game at Eagle Field this season. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.