Calon Minors’ teammate Gordon Wild scored three goals and Greg Hooks won his 300th career game as USC Upstate overcame a two-goal deficit over the final 19 minutes en route to a 5-4 victory over Winthrop at the County University Soccer Stadium.
Wild, the first USC Upstate player to win the Atlantic Sun Player of the Week in consecutive weeks, now leads the NCAA with 10 goals, 20 points and 2.0 goals per game and set the USC Upstate single-season record for goals during the Division I era.
Winthrop scored the first goal of the game when Jordi Lluch registered his fifth goal of the season with a one-timer past Upstate keeper Hassan Haddad in the sixth minute. Jordan Stoddart picked up an assist on the play after his pass from the left sideline found a streaking Lluch inside the Upstate box.
Wild answered just over two minutes later with the first of his three goals, scoring on a free kick with a left-footed blast from 25 yards that found the back corner of the Winthrop goal.
Lluch put Winthrop ahead 2-1 in the 43rd minute with a penalty kick following a red card issued to James Campbell, but Wild answered just over a minute before halftime with a beautiful goal to pull USC Upstate even. Wild gained possession after a corner kick and dribbled through two defenders near the end line and beat Hector Fernandez with a shot to the far post.
A goal from Max Hasenstab in the 58th minute and another by Marco Gatzke in the 60th minute gave Winthrop a 4-2 lead. That's when Wild started the Upstate comeback with another free kick goal to complete the hat trick and leave the Spartans trailing by one goal.
Leon Schwarzer pulled Upstate even in the 76th minute when he dribbled through two Winthrop defenders and blasted a shot into the back of the net. Schwarzer struck again with less than a minute remaining in regulation to complete the comeback and help Upstate to its third win of the season.
