Winthrop men's soccer team gets shut out by the Phoenix

From staff reports - From staff reports

ELON, N.C. -- Winthrop gave up three goals in the first 25 minutes of the game and never could recover as it suffered a 4-0 loss at Elon on Tuesday among heavy rain at Rudd Field.

With the loss, the Eagles' unbeaten streak ends at seven games and they fall to 10-3-2 overall as Elon improves to 7-6-2. In addition to the loss, the Eagles' scoring streak came to an end at 21 games.

The Phoenix jumped on the board in the 10th minute when Erfan Imeni dribbled the ball to the middle of the field and ripped a shot just enough to the left of Enrique Miranda, who got a hand on the ball but the ball found the back of the net.

Imeni struck again in the 21st minute as he was on the end of a Justin Wyatt service to the back post and placed the ball into the net with a one-touch shot. Chris Thomas made it 3-0 when he finished a through ball from 15 yards out. Thomas scored the only goal of the second half when a Winthrop player headed the ball too far the wrong way and Thomas slipped by the defense and placed a shot into the lower left corner.

“We did a very poor job adapting to the weather conditions tonight,” Winthrop coach Rich Posipanko said. “When you add that to our lack of being ready to compete and the numerous giveaways and mistakes we made defensively, we gave ourselves no chance to get a result. Elon is a very well coached and organized team and difficult to break down defensively. They made us pay for our mistakes tonight. I believe this is our worst defeat in the past five years or so. We now need to regroup and finish our final two conference games out strong. All the credit to Elon tonight, they were very good.”

It's been over five years since the Eagles have been on the end this kind of result. In fact, it's the first time the Eagles have given up four or more goals in a game since Oct. 9, 2004, in a 7-5 victory over Liberty.

Winthrop had a few scoring chances, but one of the best came in the 73rd minute as Matthew Skonicki broke free, but his shot from about 10 yards was just wide trying to beat the keeper near post. Skonicki had an open look in the 59th minute and struck the ball well, but the short hop shot went straight at the keeper. In the 88th minute, Michael Luk's free kick from just outside the ball box sailed just over the crossbar at the top left corner. In the 50th minute, Matt Lacey turned and tried to beat the keeper with a bending shot from 25 yards out to the top right corner, but the shot missed just wide.

The Eagles played without Miquel Casajuana for 60 minutes and defender Cameron Alksnis for 53 minutes when Posipanko was forced to pull them after receiving yellow cards.

Elon finished with a 16-10 shot advantage while Clint Irwin made two saves to record his seventh shutout of the season. Miranda finished with four saves for the Eagles.

Winthrop will get back to Big South Conference action Saturday when it heads to Lynchburg, Va., to face Liberty at noon. The game was originally scheduled for Sept. 25, but was postponed due to inclement weather.