VIDEO: Richard Moodie Interiew
VIDEO: Lauren Wade Interview
VIDEO: Highlights
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – A hat trick by Lauren Wade (Coleraine, Northern Ireland) led the Carson-Newman women's soccer team past the Tusculum Pioneers, 4-1, on Wednesday evening at McCown Field.
The Eagles picked up their 11th win of the season to move to 11-3 and 6-2 in the South Atlantic Conference. For the Pioneers, this was their first SAC defeat of the year and they are now 7-1-1 in conference and 9-3-2 overall.
"I think the girls knew what it meant for us to go on and win," Soccer Coach Richard Moodie said. "For [Tusculum] to be undefeated in the conference, I think we wanted to prove a point today. It was a good job all around."
The scoring began with less than a minute gone in the first half as a pass found Wade at the top of the box and she headed it past goalkeeper Miriah Martin for day's first score. In the sixth minute, Wade collaborated with Varin Ness (Sogndal, Norway) to double the lead. Wade's cross found Ness at the top of the 18 and the sophomore turned the chance into her first goal of the season. Wade was credited with the assist.
C-N continued pressing for more and it paid dividends in the 18th minute. Alex Brandan (Knoxville, Tenn.) stole the ball from the Pioneers near midfield and made a run down the left side. She sent in a cross that found Wade just outside the six-yard box and the junior finished by flicking a shot by the keeper to make the score 3-0.
Exactly four minutes later, Wade sealed her hat trick when Holly Talbut-Smith (Crawley, England) led the junior into the scoring area and the Northern Ireland native beat Martin again. Wade now has three mult-goal games this year.
"She's an all-around great individual," Moodie said. "She's a great human being, first and foremost. You see her on the training ground and she's got the youngsters under her wing. Then you see in her performance, how classy she is and a girl that's been able to represent our national team, but she's just one of many that we have here."
Despite the large deficit, the Pioneers did not give up and they got on the scoresheet in the 32nd minute. A mistake on the back line by the Eagles led to a steal by Alex Valeri, who found Carly Mill making a run towards the goal. Mill took Valeri's pass and booted a shot past keeper Jacqueline Burns (Cookstown, Northern Ireland) for her team-high third goal of 2016.
In the second half, the Pioneers crept closer when Mill connected with Payton DeHart on the right side of the box and DeHart's shot from just outside the six-yard area found twine, bringing Tusculum to within two. They could get no closer, however, as Carson-Newman's defense tightened up for the rest of the night and preserved the victory.
On Saturday, Carson-Newman travels to Brevard for their final road match of the regular season, as they face the Tornados at 5pm.
-CN-
