JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – One more road game remains on the 2016 regular season schedule for the Carson-Newman men's soccer team and it takes the squad to Brevard on Saturday for a South Atlantic Conference contest at 7:30 p.m. at Brevard Soccer Field in Brevard, N.C.
The Eagles enter this match off arguably their biggest win of the year as they upset No. 7 Tusculum on Wednesday night in double overtime. Thibault Mathorez (Graces, France) provided the game-winner with a header in the 107th minute, sending the Pioneers down to their first defeat of the year. The victory was the first come-from-behind win for the Eagles this season and also snapped a three-game losing streak, putting C-N's record at 7-7 and 3-5 in the SAC. Against the Tornados, they will be trying to end a three-game road losing skid. The team is currently in eighth place in the SAC and holds the final spot for the SAC Tournament at season's end. Coach Moodie's squad still has a chance to finish the season above .500 in conference play if they can win their final three matches.
Brevard enters Wednesday trying to stop a five-game slide that's dropped them to 5-8-2 on the year. All five of those losses have come against conference opponents and, subsequently, the Tornados have sunk to the bottom of the league table. The team has remained competitive despite its struggles, as four of their last five losses have been by 1-0 scores, but they've only netted a single goal over the last three weeks. Their last win came on Sept. 29th over John Wesley University by a score 4-1.
The biggest problem for the Tornados during their losing streak has been an inability to score, as evidenced by their total of just one goal in their last five contests. For the season, they've scored 21 times, the eighth most in the SAC and they have scored four goals or more three times. Tyler Nelson is the squad leader with five goals and 11 points and has a pair of braces to his credit this season. Camilo Sosa and Winston Haddock each have a team-high three assists.
Carson-Newman's two goals on Saturday brought their total to 29 for the season, which ranks fourth in the SAC. Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway) added to his team-leading leading total for Carson-Newman by picking up his seventh goal of the season during the win over Tusculum. Staalby is tied for the fifth most scores in the SAC and has gotten on the scoresheet in four of C-N's last seven games. Tom Read (London, England) added two assists to his league leading total on Saturday and now has 12 this year, tied for the second-most in Division II. The junior's 22 points also have him tied for fourth in the SAC.
Joe Boyd (Nottingham, England) played a huge roll in his team's upset of Tusculum by totaling a career-high 10 saves, the third time in five games Boyd has set a career high in saves. Boyd has moved into third place in the league with 65 saves and is also in top five in goals-against average and save percentage. Boyd also has three shutouts in a season in which he's started every game.
Goalkeeper Heath Turner came into the year off a season in which he was named SAC Honorable Mention and set program records for GAA and save percentage, while also tying the school record for wins in a season. In 2016, he has started 11 games and made 47 saves while allowing 20 goals. His save percentage of .701 ranks 10th in the conference and his 1.70 GAA places him ninth. He is still searching for his first clean sheet of the season.
The all-time series between these programs has been lopsided to say the least, as Carson-Newman has won all ten tussles against Brevard. These squads met twice last year, both times at Mossy Creek and the Tornados were held scoreless in each contest. In the regular season, Rurik Pereira's tally in the 84th minute gave C-N a 1-0 triumph. When they matched up again in SAC Tournament, it was a more one-sided game, with the Eagles rolling, 4-0.
At the conclusion of Saturday's game, visit cneagles.com for full rundown of all the goings-on in Brevard.
-CN-
