HARTSVILLE, S.C – Trailing by just a goal at halftime, Carson-Newman (3-3-1, 1-2) struggled to keep Coker (3-1-3, 1-1-1) off the scoreboard, falling 5-0, Saturday night in Hartsville.
In four road games, Carson-Newman has only scored one goal and has allowed nine.
Coker started the scoring in the 7th minute. Celestin Blondel found Jacques Fokam Sandeu who buried his first goal of the year to give the Cobras a 1-0 lead.
While Carson-Newman failed to fire a shot on target, it did have some very good opportunities to score in the opening half. In the third minute, Harry Whithead (Oxford, England) had a chance but missed his shot high. Four minutes later, Jonas Friedl hit the crossbar and it ricocheted out of play. C-N's final shot of the half was from Thomas De Graauw, but it never made it to goal because it was blocked by a Coker defender.
Levi Burdette (Seymour, Tenn.) kept the deficit at one by halftime thanks to a pair of saves in the 13th and 22nd minutes.
Coker increased the advantage, scoring multiple goals in the first few minutes of the second half. Leonardo Palmieri fired from outside the box and nailed a shot into the bottom left corner of goal. Two minutes later, Blondel assisted on a Hykeem Martin goal to make it 3-0 Cobras.
The Cobras continued its offensive success. After assisting on a pair of goals, Celestin Blondel buried one himself in the 59th minute. Fokam Sandeu capped the scoring with his second goal of the night in the 74th minute.
Carson-Newman was held to just one shot in the second half, a Whitehead header that was saved by Coker keeper Jasper Rump. The Eagles recorded three corner kicks in the second half, totaling five in the match.
It's the second time in five meetings that Coker has scored five times on the Eagles.
Four different C-N players competed for the full 90 minutes, including Maxime Wester (Brussel, Belgium) who has played every second of Carson-Newman's seven matches this season.
Eric Thust made his season debut, playing the final 25 minutes of the match and made three saves.
Carson-Newman gets back on the pitch Wednesday evening against Mars Hill.
