JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Less than 48 hours after a win in their home opener, the Carson-Newman men's soccer team will travel on the road to Tennessee Wesleyan College for a 5pm contest as they look to begin the year 2-0.
"Our expectations are to build off of Saturday's performance," Head Coach Richard Moodie said. "We talk about capitalizing on chances early and I think that'll be our first objective. We have to convert chances into goals."
On Saturday, the team dropped Lees-McRae by a score of 2-1, with Samuel Jenkins (Bicester, England) and Bruno Andrade (Sao Paulo, Brazil) providing the goals. They were also able to fend off several late offensive attacks to hold on for the win. Jenkins' goal continues a streak of six consecutive seasons in which a new member of the squad has scored a goal in the season opener. Last year it was Thibault Mathorez (Graces, France), who began his career by finding twine against Alabama-Huntsville. The victory over Lees-McRae also marked the first win in the career of freshman goalkeeper Joe Boyd (Nottingham, England), who made his collegiate debut on Saturday and picked up two saves.
Going back to 1993, Carson-Newman is just 10-12-1 in the season's first road game. Last year however, their first road trip yielded a 5-0 win over Belmont Abbey. This match is the first in a stretch of four straight games away from McCown Field for the Eagles, as they begin the season by playing six of their first eight games on the road.
Tennessee Wesleyan, which competes in the NAIA, enters the contest at 1-0-1 after starting their year in the SCAD Tournament in August. The Bulldogs played to a 2-2 draw with Webber International and knocked off SCAD Savannah 2-1. Through two games, the team has been led by senior forward Jordan Jacob, who scored three of their four goals during the SCAD Tournament.
In 18 games last season, Tennessee Wesleyan scored only 18 goals and they also graduated five of the their top six scorers from last season, with the only returner being sophomore Jonny Le Quesne.
The Bulldogs were picked to finish fourth in their conference's preseason poll, one year after an 8-9-1 campaign. Their 5-3-1 conference record put them at fourth place in the Appalachian Athletic Conference in 2015.
"They're a great team and they're well coach by Steve Lyons," Moodie said. "They'll be very technical and be able to move the ball around. We're very similar in a lot of ways."
These two teams last met in 1991, the last of three consecutive seasons in which they faced each other. Carson-Newman won the last match by a score of 1-0, but Tennessee Wesleyan won in 1989 and 1990 and leads the all-time series 2-1.
-CN-
