Longwood fell to Winthrop 3-2 on the Eagles’ Senior Night in Rock Hill, S.C. on Oct. 29. The Lancers’ third consecutive defeat dropped them to 5-11-1 overall and 2-5 in conference. Winthrop finished their season 5-10-1 overall and 2-6 in the Big South.
The Eagles came back in a second-half surge after being down 2-1 in the first half. They kicked off the scoring in the fourth minute with a goal from freshman midfielder Leif Estevez.
The Lancers responded with back to back goals putting them in the lead over the Eagles. Longwood’s junior defender Marten Pajunurm put away the first goal in the 19th minute off a corner kick that was headed back into the box by junior defender Tom Devitt.
Then Longwood freshman midfielder Connor Rea scored the Lancers’ second goal in the 24th minute after receiving the ball from senior midfielder Finnlay Wyatt. Winthrop quickly tied the game back up three minutes later right before the end of the half.
“We allowed the game to swing in the balance all night,” said head coach Jon Atkinson on the official Longwood athletics website. “We did well to recover for an early setback to get in the driver’s seat, but we never kicked on and ultimately paid the price.”
Winthrop’s senior defender Pietro Bottari assisted all three goals for the Eagles, including the winning goal to junior forward Nil Vinyals. Vinyals scored the game-winner in the 60th minute, leaving Longwood in search of another goal to tie it back up before the end of the game.
Unfortunately, the Lancers were unable to find an equalizer and lost to their conference opponents, who outshot them 18-10 and 7-4 in shots on goal.
The loss leaves Longwood in a tough position going into their final regular season game on Nov. 2 against Liberty. It is the Lancers’ Senior Night and will determine if they qualify for the Big South Championship, which they can do with a win.
