JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – Samuel Jenkins (Bicester, England) and Bruno Andrade (Sao Paulo, Brazil) staked the Carson-Newman Eagles to a first half lead and they held on for the final 45 minutes on their way to a 2-1 victory in their season opener at McCown Field.
"I'm proud of the boys," Head Coach Richard Moodie said. "I think they did a fantastic job. They played with great energy from minute one all the way through. I think we made hard work of it towards the end. Either way, though, we grinded hard and showed we are willing to take the game to the 90th minute."
The Eagles put a lot of pressure on the Bobcats in early going and finally broke through in the 30th minute when Jenkins netted the team's first goal of 2016. After taking a pass from Tom Read (London, England) on the edge of the 18, Poly Avgousti (Paphos, Cyprus) found Jenkins at the 6-yard box, and, after settling the ball, Jenkins slid a header just past the keeper for his team's first lead.
Ten minutes later, that lead doubled when Andrade added his name to the scoresheet. Andrade took a cross from Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway) and blasted a shot past keeper Tyler Pavlet to make the score 2-0.
The Eagles were unable to add to their lead after Andrade's goal and spent the second half fending off several Lees-McRae chances. The Bobcats did cut into the lead in the 53rd minute when Nathan Watt took an errant Carson-Newman pass and beat goalkeeper Joe Boyd (Nottingham, England) to his right from 25 yard out.
They were unable to even the score, however, as Boyd, in his collegiate debut and his defense hung tough and kept Lees-McRae at bay until the final whistle. This the second straight year they've opened the season with a win at home.
"[The defense] did fantastic," Moodie said. "Graduating all the players we did and having a new back four, they did fantastic. Joe in goal looked fantastic tonight. I'm really proud of their work."
The Eagles hit the road now for a game on Monday at Tennessee Wesleyan on Monday at 5pm.
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