VIDEO: Maxime Wester Interview
VIDEO: Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – In its final home game of September, Carson-Newman (3-2-1, 1-1) used a relentless offensive attack to defeat Emory & Henry (0-5, 0-3) Wednesday evening at McCown field 3-0.
"Glad we were able to get the victory, but we know we can be even better," Carson-Newman head coach Stephen Lyons said. "With the number of chances we created, we know that offensively we can finish good sequences off and the defense can always sharpen up. But, pleased with the effort and glad to get a clean sheet and a league win."
C-N wasted no time in applying pressure offensively. 46 seconds into the match, Harry Whitehead (Oxford, England) received a ball into the box and sent a shot on frame that forced a Tyler Catron save.
The Eagles fired four more shots in the first ten minutes of the opening half, but none were on frame. Emory & Henry got its first chance on goal when Jado Masambeta made run forward and sent a dangerous shot on frame that forced a diving save by Levi Burdette (Seymour, Tenn.) ranging to his left.
Carson-Newman's next shot on goal came in the 22nd minute, Ben Dukes (Southampton, England) had space in the box and shot a ball toward Catron who made another save.
Carson-Newman finally made the most of its many opportunity, starting the scoring in the 34th minute. Less than ten seconds on the pitch, Harry Baggaley (Stoke-On-Trent, England) made an excellent run forward and touched a pass off for Dukes who buried a shot into the bottom left corner of goal to give C-N the advantage. The goal was Dukes' first career goal and the Baggaley assist was his first of his C-N career as well.
The Eagles finished the opening half with eleven shots and seven corner kicks, to E&H's three and two.
E&H had the first real scoring opportunity of the second half. In the 48th minute, Jado Masambeta intercepted a pass and had a one on one with Burdette, but the striker sent his shot well over top of goal.
C-N's offense picked up where it left off in the first half. The Eagles recorded five shots in the first 20 minutes, and it picked up even more has the half grew on. Baggaley, Nic Carsh (Newberg, Ore) and Thomas De Graaw (Hoofddorp, Netherlands) Isaac Pascal (Southend-on-Sea, England) all had shots on goal that were saved in two-minute stretch. De Graaw sent another terrific shot on goal but defender Tyler Dunn stood on the end line to boot the ball away from going in the back of the net.
The relentless effort started to pay off down the stretch. Whitehead dribbled his way into the box, the ball deflected off his feet and to Carsh's who took one touch and fired a shot into the net for his 16th career goal to make the score 2-0.
The Eagles played add on in the final seconds, freshman Maxime Wester split two defenders and sent a screamer that found its way in the top part of goal to put the finishing touches on C-N's first SAC win.
"There was like 20 seconds left, I took my chance on goal and it paid off," Wester said. "I was really happy with the goal."
Carson-Newman finished the match with a season-high 32 shots, its most in a game since recording 30 against North Greenville on September 6, 2019.
The Eagles did not score off a corner kick, but recorded a season-high eleven corners in the win.
Baggaley led C-N with seven shots, after entering the match with zero career shots since joining the Eagles. He was joined by six other Eagles who recorded multiple shots in the match.
Making his second career start in goal, Burdette made two saves and recorded his first career clean sheet. The shutout is C-N's third of the season.
Catron made nine saves for the Wasps in a losing effort.
The Eagles look to build on their first SAC win of the season, when it heads to Coker on Saturday for a 7:00 p.m. matchup.
