GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Matthew Skonicki scored the second of his two goals of the afternoon 3:22 into overtime to lead the Winthrop Eagles to a 2-1 victory over the Elon Phoenix from the UNCG Kickoff Classic on Sunday. Elon, playing its second consecutive overtime contest, is now 0-2-1 on the year while Big South favorite Winthrop improved to 3-1-0.
"I thought we played well and that our boys worked very hard today," said Elon head coach Darren Powell. "It was a hard way to lose against a very talented Winthrop team. We must regroup and get ready for our next match. If we learn lessons from these games then this team will continue to get better all year long."
Skonicki put the Eagles on the board at 15:50 after taking a long ball down midfield from Otto Loewy and beating Elon's
Kyle Boerner for the marker.
The Phoenix evened the score at 1-1 just before halftime.
Stephen Dilger scored the first goal of his career at the 43:23 mark by heading home a corner from
Brad Franks.
After the two teams played a scoreless second 45 minutes, Elon got off the first attack in overtime.
Justin Wyatt's shot just 2:20 into extra time was blocked. Skonicki would then put home the game-winner 1:20 later, again beating Boerner.
Statistically, Elon dominated the contest. The Phoenix out-shot the Eagles by a 14-8 margin overall and an 8-3 margin on goal. Winthrop was whistled for 15 fouls while Elon was called for only seven.
Boerner made one save while Winthrop's Patrick Mitrovich stopped seven attempts.
Elon will next play on Friday when it hosts the inaugural Elon Classic. The first match of the four-team tournament will pit UNC Greensboro against East Tennessee State at 5 p.m. The Phoenix will take the pitch at 7:30 p.m. against UNC Asheville on Friday night.
-- ELON --
