ROCK HILL, S.C. – Winthrop's Alfie Rogers and Leif Estevez each tallied a pair of goals to lead the Eagles past the Longwood men's soccer team 4-1 Saturday night at Eagle Field.

Winthrop (4-11-0, 3-5-0 Big South) was able to overcome the fifth goal of the season from Willy Miezan and a Longwood (4-12-1, 2-4-1 Big South) side that held a 19-14 shot advantage throughout.

"To say this season has been a learning experience is an understatement and I'm sure the lads will be fueled to right some wrongs in a campaign we've been close," said Longwood head coach Jon Atkinson.

Rogers scored the game's opening goal in the 13th minute and converted a penalty kick in the 66th minute for his first career two-goal performance. With Longwood playing a man down in the final 24 minutes, Estevez put the game away late with Longwood pressing for a comeback, scoring a pair in a span of 53 seconds.

"In a game of this magnitude, discipline cost us and has been our achilles heel throughout and will be our focus to improve here on out," Atkinson said. "We'll grow from this, there's a great ability here and some caliber guys.

"The game tonight swung on a bizarre situation I've never witnessed in all my years of coaching. Playing a man down against a team that had nothing to lose, we found ourselves in a hole and chasing the game. Unfortunately, we left ourselves open at the back trying to get back into it and paid the price."

Miezan scored his team-leading fifth goal of the season for the Lancers in the waning moments of the first half with a 42nd minute strike that tied the game and handed Longwood momentum prior to the break. Longwood's senior captain has rebounded from back-to-back ACL tears to once again lead the team in scoring in 14 games after doing so in his redshirt-freshman season.

A product of Alexandria, Va., Miezan had a chance for his second of the game and nearly gave Longwood a 2-1 lead, hitting the crossbar in the early minutes of the second half. That attempt was one of a game-high six shots for the forward, as he played a 73 minutes.

Miezan was one of five Lancers to record multiple shots in the game, including Markus Gronli, Jeremy Jaquier, Aj Kmeic and Mikel Abando.

"We had so many opportunities throughout tonight to take the game away from Winthrop but execution let us down," Atkinson said. "Even a man down, we created a lot and have to look at ourselves in that regard to challenge us to do better."

Jacob Reimers made three saves on 14 shots faced while his counterpart Aidan McCormick made three saves on 19 Longwood shots.

The loss sets up a must-win situation for the Lancers Wednesday, Oct. 31 at the Athletics Complex, as Longwood welcomes Campbell at 6 p.m. in a game that will be streamed on ESPN+. Longwood will look to duplicate its win over Liberty two seasons ago that saw the Lancers carry the momentum from that game to the Big South Championship game.

"We will bounce back and will look for a response on Wednesday," Atkinson said. "I'm sure we'll want to erase the memory of tonight and put our best foot forward for the season finale and honor our seniors."

Prior to kickoff in Wednesday's game, Longwood will honor its seven seniors – Miezan, Cody Bell, Andreas Aderiye, Sherif Maalouf, Josh Hanratty, Daniel Marques and Denzel Speed.

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