CONWAY, S.C. ? The VMI men's soccer team fell to the Winthrop Eagles, 7-1, in the first round of the Big South Tournament. With the defeat, VMI's season comes to an end in Conway, S.C.

VMI had the first scoring chance of the game, as Brian Harding broke free in the 18-yard box and fired a shot towards the net. Winthrop keeper Patrick Mitrovich made the save, and the tide turned toward the Eagles.

Scoring began in the 19^th minute, when Winthrop got on the board with a shot from 30 yards out to take a 1-0 lead.

The two teams then battled back and forth for the next 20 minutes, until the top-seeded Eagles added to their lead at the 40:48 mark, tallying a score off a corner kick. The header pushed the margin to 2-0, but that advantage grew to a trio of goals just before the half. In the 45^th minute, Grant Wise put a ball in the right side of the net to give Winthrop a 3-0 advantage. That was the edge at halftime, as Winthrop outshot VMI 10-1 during the opening 45 minutes of play.

Early in the second half, the Eagles put the game away. VMI keeper Brian Sowell mishandled a ball in front of the net, and Big South Player of the Year Daniel Revivo took advantage. The Winthrop forward put the ball past Sowell to increase Winthrop's edge to 4-0 at the 47:10 mark.

The lead grew to five when an Eagle player stole the ball from a VMI midfielder. From about 35 yards out, the Winthrop player fed the ball to forward Matthew Skonicki who was in a one-on-one matchup with VMI keeper Sowell. Skonicki beat Sowell at the 50:17 mark to give the Eagles a 5-0 lead, and Skonicki added another goal some four minutes later, making it 6-0.

The Keydets got on the board at 63:23, when Andrew Self fed John Sisco for the VMI goal. The score cut the deficit to 6-1, and came off a series play.

Winthrop would add another goal in the 69^th minute to push the final margin to 7-1.

On the day, Winthrop outshot VMI 19-6, while the two teams combined for just three offside violations.