Carson-Newman Men’s Soccer Position Previews: Forwards

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Posted: Aug 23, 2023

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – This is the final part of a three-part series previewing the 2023 Carson-Newman men's soccer season. We conclude by previewing the Eagles' attackers with help from Harry Whitehead.

Carson-Newman scored 28 goals in 2022, ranking sixth in the SAC. It was an offensive attack that peaked early in the season, scoring multiple goals in six of its first 12 games and only managed to do that once in the final six games of the season, winning only one of those matches. When C-N was 6-0-1 when scoring two goals or more.

"I think with the attacking talent that we have, we should be scoring a lot more goals than 30 to be honest," Whitehead said. "We should get so many shots on frame. Hopefully we can score a lot of goals as a group."

The team enters 2023 with its attackers being the most experienced group on the team, with the return of senior Harry Whitehead (Oxford, England) and graduate student Nic Carsh (Newberg, Ore). Both enter their fifth playing season in Mossy Creek. The formidable duo has combined for 99 career appearances, 82 starts, 27 goals and 15 assists.

Whitehead missed the first half of 2022 with a knee injury, but still managed to score three goals over the final eight games of the season.

Carsh is coming off one of his better seasons with the Eagles. He earned All-SAC First Team honors after leading C-N with four goals scored last season.

"Obviously last year didn't go as planned, with picking up that injury in the preseason," Whitehead said. "I worked hard to get back in for the latter part of the season. Hopefully, this year with the combination of me and Nic, being the experienced forwards amongst the team, we can really help the new guys coming in to hit the ground running."

There is depth behind the strong attack of Carsh and Whitehead. Harry Baggaley (Stoke-On-Trent, England) returns for a graduate season. The former NAIA All-American transferred to C-N last season but played in just the final five games of last season due to an injury. He brings plenty of goal-scoring prowess to the Eagles attack. At Tennessee Wesleyan, he set the record for goals scored with 25 during the 2018-19 season.

"Baggs is a great guy, he is one of my closest friends," Whitehead said. "He works hard, he's physical and a really good finisher. Hopefully he is going to get plenty of minutes to show us the form he showed at Tennessee Wesleyan."

Two other transfers join this experienced bunch in sophomore Ben Dukes (Southampton, England) and graduate student Thomas De Graauw (Hoofddorp, Netherlands). The Englishmen arrives in Mossy Creek with after one season at the Division I level with the University of Connecticut. For the Huskies he played 114 minutes, recording his first career assist on the game-winner against Maine at Fort Kent on Oct 12. De Graauw spent four seasons at Shawnee State, an NAIA school in Ohio. He made 58 appearances scoring 16 goals and adding 32 assists. He led NAIA with 22 assists in 2022.

"Both of them have shown really good effort in the preseason," Whitehead said. "Ben is a right winger and has a really good left foot. Thomas is very very tricky. He is very direct and loves to get on the ball. I'm really looking forward to playing with them this year."

Carson-Newman kicks off the 2023 campaign with a neutral site matchup with West Alabama on Aug 31 at 3:30 p.m.