Eagles top Coastal in shootout to reach BSC men's soccer final

From staff reports

BOILING SPRINGS, N.C. -- For the second day in a row, Winthrop advanced in the Big South Conference men's soccer tournament on a penalty shootout, this time using a 4-3 advantage on penalty kicks to defeat top-seeded Coastal Carolina on Saturday and earn a spot in the tournament final.

On Friday, the Eagles (10-5-4) advanced after downing Gardner-Webb in a shootout in the opening round.

“I thought the best team advanced tonight,” Winthrop head coach Rich Posipanko said. “It was great to see us get back some of our form we had a few weeks ago. I feel we were very fortunate to advance tonight. I think this game had all the makings of a championship game. I would like to congratulate Coastal Carolina on the outstanding season it had.”

The win puts the Eagles in today's championship game against third-seeded Liberty. It will be Winthrop's fourth championship game appearance in five seasons.

Coastal Carolina (9-2-7) had a 1-0 lead heading into the final 10 minutes of the match until Miquel Casajuana tied it with 4 minutes, 18 seconds remaining off a rip to the right corner of the goal from 35 yards out. Jordan Osborn won the ball at midfield and played it forward to Casajuana.

After neither team could break the tie in the two overtimes, the match headed to penalty kicks. Unlike Friday's game against Gardner-Webb, Winthrop shot first. Matt Lacey stepped up and put his shot into the top right corner. Coastal Carolina's Joe Anderson made the first to keep it even. Adam Skonicki sailed his shot over the goal to give the Chanticleers the advantage, but they did not capitalize as the next shooter hit the crossbar to even things up.

After Matthew Skonicki made his penalty shot, Enrique Miranda made a big save, giving the advantage back to the Eagles and setting up Casajuana to net the game-winner again. The junior midfielder buried the shot into the corner.

Coastal Carolina got on the board first in the 52nd minute when Leo Mukofsky placed the ball into the net off Djamel Bekka's free kick from about 30 yards out on an angle to Miranda's left.

Winthrop had a few good chances to score throughout the match. Just nine minutes into the match, Lacey ripped a shot from about 10 yards off a cross that was turned away by Coastal keeper Scott Angevine. At the start of the second half, Matthew Skonicki crossed the ball to Adam Skonicki, who took a one-touch shot that was blocked. Adam Skonicki stayed with the blocked shot and ripped another that hit off the inside of the right post and deflected across the mouth of the goal behind Angevine.

In the second overtime, Angevine was called for a handball as he picked up the ball outside the 18-yard box. That gave Winthrop a free kick from the side of the box with under two minutes remaining in the game. Luk served the free kick to the back post where it was headed back across. Matthew Skonicki was right there, but his shot hit the side of the net from about 6 yards out.

The Eagles were missing first-team All-Big South selection Stephen Nsereko, who did not make the trip due to an injury. Starting defender Cameron Alksnis left the game at halftime due to an injury.

“I thought it would be a real struggle for us today with all the injuries, but we were able to patch things together, especially in the midfield without Nsereko and Lacey at 50 percent as well as the five guys we had coming into the tournament,” Posipanko said. “We will just try and patch it up for one more game.”