No. 1 Winthrop Wins Big South Championship
CONWAY, S.C. – No. 1 Winthrop defeated Coastal Carolina 4-3 in overtime in the title game of the 2008 Big South Men’s Soccer Championship Sunday afternoon at the Coastal Carolina Soccer Field on the campus of Coastal Carolina University. Winthrop captures its third ever championship and receives the Big South’s automatic bid to the NCAA Men’s Soccer Championship.
Big South Player of the Year Daniel Revivo scored his 14th goal of the season in the second overtime to give the Eagles their second conference championship in the last three seasons. Matthew Skonicki just beat out a Coastal Carolina defender to knock the ball wide to Miquel Casajuana, who took the ball toward the end line just around the edge of the 18-yard box and served the ball to the mouth of the goal. Revivo made a run to the back post and hammered the ball into the open net for the win.
Winthrop jumped out to a 2-0 lead after goals by Michael Luk and Skonicki. Luk took advantage of an early foul outside the 18-yard box by Coastal Carolina, as he buried the shot into the top left corner in the ninth minute for his third of the season Skonicki made it 2-0 when Grant Wise delivered a perfect service on his head at the back post.
Coastal Carolina fired back 24 seconds later as Carlos Recinos was able to slip by a shot by Patrick Mitrovich at the near post from a tough angle on the end line. Less than three minutes later the Chanticleers tied the match at 2-2 as Riley Phelps hammered home a nice service from Tyler Miles at the back post.
Mitrovich helped preserve the lead in the first half as he stopped a penalty kick with 3:40 remaining. Robert Hunter took the shot and just like late in the penalty shootout against Liberty, Mitrovich came up with another big save.
The two teams went back and forth in the second half with each team having quality chances to take the lead. Winthrop nearly went up 3-2 with 25 minutes to go in the game as his header off a corner kick was cleared off the line at the back post. Coastal Carolina had a great chance in the when Hunter broke into 18-yard box and ripped a close range shot, but Mitrovich stood his ground to keep the match tied.
Coastal Carolina was the team that broke through late in the game as it was awarded its second penalty shot of the game. It was Hunter again and this time he buried it in the 87th minute. It looked as if it might be over for the Eagles, but Skonicki came through big with 21 seconds to go in the game as he hammered home a rebound off the shot of Henry Kalungi. The Chanticleers were whistled for a foul just outside the box and Rafael hit a free kick that was saved. Kalungi attempted a shot off the rebound and after it kicked over to Skonicki, who squeezed it by a Coastal Carolina defender.
Winthrop finished with 22 shots while Coastal Carolina had 19. It was a physical game as the two teams combined 37 fouls.
Skonicki finished the game with two goals while Revivo had a goal and an assist. Miles finished with two assists as Hunter, Recinos and Phelps had a goal each.
Mitrovich finished with four saves and improved to 14-4-1 on the year while Coastal Carolina’s Phillip Latham falls to 10-9-1.
Skonicki was named Tournament MVP for his play in Winthrop’s three wins. Joining Skonicki on the All-Tournament Team were teammates Daniel Revivo, Otto Loewy and Cameron Alksnis. Kyle Russell, Robert Hunter, and Ross Kelly from runner-up Coastal Carolina also earned All-Tournament honors. Liberty and UNC Asheville placed two players on the squad. The Flames’ Joshua Boateng and Cameron Chastian were joined by the Bulldogs’ Patrick Tate and Alex Morrow. VMI’s Brian Harding, Gardner-Webb’s Bradley Morrison, Devin Cooley from Radford and Karo Okiomah of High Point round out the squad.
Winthrop improves to 15-5-1 on the year, while Coastal Carolina finishes at 10-10-1. It was the fourth meeting between Winthrop and Coastal Carolina in the Championship game.
QUOTES
Rich Posipanko, head coach Winthrop
“Winthrop and Coastal have been at this for awhile in these type of games and we’ve been on both ends of it. We had to battle through some tough decisions that were made on the field and never gave up or loss sight of our goal for the season. I have a feeling there is going to be many more of these types of games with Coastal over the years. All the credit to Shaun Docking and Coastal Carolina for making it a great college game to watch.”
Shaun Docking, head coach Coastal Carolina
“I am very proud of the way we played today. I thought we did everything to win today. We were 30 seconds away from the NCAA Tournament. I thought we did everything we needed to win, but Winthrop proved to be too much for us.”