VIDEO: Richard Moodie Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – As their regular season winds down, the Carson-Newman men's soccer team plays the second-to-last game on their schedule on Tuesday when they host the Lincoln Memorial University Railsplitters at McCown Field at 7:30pm.
"It's going to be tough," Soccer Coach Richard Moodie said. "The guys are a good team, they've ad injuries. They're just fighting for a lifeline now. It's going to be a tough game, no doubt. It's going to be a lot harder than Saturday's game, that's for sure. They just have to figure out if they're up to the task or not."
The Eagles are trying to break out of a funk that's seen them lose four of their last five matches. Their last time out, they were beaten by Brevard, 2-1, in overtime to drop to 7-8 on the season and their 3-6 record in the South Atlantic Conference has them tied for ninth. The team has continued to battle despite the adversity, as those four defeats have all been by one goal, including an overtime loss to the top-ranked team in the country, Wingate. Their one victory during this current rough patch came the last time they were at McCown Field, when they hosted the nation's No. 7 team, the Tusculum Pioneers. Thibault Mathorez (Graces, France) headed in the game-winner in the second overtime to propel his team to victory. The Eagles will also have the advantage of being at home on Tuesday, where they are 4-3 this season. The Eagles trail Queens (N.C.), the eighth place team in the SAC, by one point as they attempt to gain a spot in the conference tournament, which includes the league's top eight teams.
LMU comes to Jefferson City at 9-5 on the season and 5-4 in the SAC, a record that puts them in fifth, as they attempt to secure their own spot in the conference tournament. The Railsplitters have won four out of five and shutout Anderson on Saturday, 3-0, which was also senior day for coach Helio D'Anna's team. Their only loss during that five game stretch was on the road at Mars Hill and LMU has had problems in away games this season. They are 6-1 at home but only 2-3 on the road, including dropping three of their last four as the visitors.
The Railsplitters offense has been solid, if not spectacular, this season as they have 28 goals, the fifth most in the SAC and average two scores per-game. LMU has scored 15 times in their last five matches, including a season-high six scores against Lees-McRae on Oct. 5th. Sophomore Victor Peres, junior Danilo da Silva and senior George Burne are tied with a team-high six goals and da Silva's 18 points rank him eighth in the SAC, as he also has six assists. Burne has a hat trick to his credit this season, as he put together a three-goal performance in his team's win over L-M.
C-N's loss to Brevard marks the fourth time in the last five games they've been held to one goal or less and the seventh time overall this season after being held below two scores just five times in 2015. Despite these recent struggles, they have the SAC's fourth most goals with 30 and they average 16.8 shots per game, the second most in the conference. Marius Staalby's (Trondheim, Norway) seven goals are a team-high and he has not gone more than two games without a goal since Sept. 12th and 24th. Tom Read (London, England) continues to hold on to the conference's top spot on the assist leaderboard with 12 and he's also tied for third in the SAC with 22 points. Staalby and Read have been supported by a number of players, as the Eagles have 14 different goal scorers this year.
Saturday's loss marked the first action in net this year for Aaron Zavolokin (Sydney Australia), who played the final 62:36 of the match after replacing Joe Boyd (Nottingham, England) and made two saves. Zavolokin joined the team for the 2016 season after transferring from Peninsula College in Washington. During his sophomore season with the Pirates, the keeper went 9-1-3 with two shutouts.
"He's such a great young man," Moodie said of Zavolokin. "[Aaron] has been pushing himself every day, he's working harder every day. His attitude is brilliant. It's difficult to get that part right when you're a goalkeeper. He's improved in a lot of aspects."
On this night, Zavolokin will be opposed by freshman August Ahlin, who has started every game for LMU this season. He's also made his way in the SAC's top five in goals-against average with a mark of 1.22. The native of Sweden possesses a save percentage of .685 with 37 saves while allowing 17 goals. He has a pair of shutouts to his credit as well.
The overall series between these programs has been fairly evenly matched, but the Railsplitters hold the edge as they have 14 wins in 29 meetings while the Eagles have 12 and there have also been three ties. LMU has had a surprising amount of success at McCown Field, as they are 7-6-1 in road matches in this rivalry, but they are just 2-6-2 against C-N on their home turf. Last year was an example of that trend, as Carson-Newman collected a 2-1 road triumph on scores by Sindre Welo and Tom Read (London, England). Lincoln Memorial's last victory over the Eagles came in 2013, when they earned 3-2 win.
The match will be streamed live on cneagles.com/live with Michael Wottreng providing the play-by-play. Live stats will also be available and a complete recap of the match will be on cneagles.com after the final whistle.
-CN-
