BRISTOL, Tenn. – The fourth-ranked Carson-Newman women's soccer team pushed their unbeaten streak to 14 games after defeating the King Tornado by a final of 5-0 on Wednesday afternoon.
The Eagles (13-0-1) will have a chance to end the regular season unbeaten for the first time in program history on Saturday. No team in the history of the program has finished the regular season unbeaten since their first year of play in 1991.
"Great team performance overall," Coach Simon Duffy exclaimed. "Very happy with the outcome as we came prepared to play today and it showed."
Junior forward Magda Mosengo got the scoring started for the Eagles in the 30th minute after taking a feed from senior defender Helen Seed and drilling home her seventh goal of the season. The eventual game winner marked her fourth of the 2017 campaign, tying a team lead.
Emilee Futrell added her fifth goal of the year eight minutes later. After the initial shot was stopped, Futrell was there again collecting her own rebound to grab the 2-0 lead. The forward out of Wilson, N.C. leads all freshman in the South Atlantic Conference in goals and total points.
It took Mosengo all of 17 seconds after the start of the second half, grabbing her second goal of the game, booting a shot from nearly 40 yards out that curved behind King goalkeeper Olivia Drake. Her eight goals in the 2017 campaign tie the junior for third in the SAC.
Freshman Madison Huffstetler collected her first goal of the season following a setup pass from Holly Talbut-Smith in the 66th minute, putting the ball far post and upper 90 from the right side of the 18-yard box. Freshman Kaitlin Kehrer also put away her first goal of 2017 on a feed from Allie-Anne Blackburn in the waning minutes after receiving the pass on the left side of the box and striking the ball over Drake, giving the 13th different Eagle to record a goal this season.
"Very happy to see three of our freshmen on the score sheet," Duffy mentioned. "It was a great showing by them, but also delighted with the clean sheet."
Eagles net minders Jackie Burns and Jasmine Rizk did not face a single shot from the Tornado offense, notching their second combined shutout of the season and the team's 8th total. Burns career total as a sophomore sits at 20.2, which is just 3.4 off from the program record of 23.6 set by Christine Furman from 1996-99. Burns has two combined shutouts in her career, giving the additional .2 when it comes to total clean sheets.
The Tornado (2-12-1) are winless all-time against Carson-Newman dating back to 2000 when the teams first met. King is 0-14 with nine of those losses coming at home. They have yet to win a game at Parks Field this season. Olivia Drake was the stand out for the Tornado, collecting 15 saves on the afternoon, the most for the senior this season.
Carson-Newman ripped off 31 shots in the contest, 20 of which were on frame, the most for the team this season. The Eagles last put 20 shots on goal in 2016 against both Brevard and Francis Marion.
It is the first time since Sept. 21, 2016 that C-N did not allow a single shot, when they defeated Mars Hill 8-0 at McCown Field.
The Eagles will wrap up the 2017 regular season on Oct. 28 when they travel to Coker to take on the Cobras. C-N will also look for a chance to finish the regular season unbeaten in conference play. It has only been done once in the program's history when the 2002 team finished the year 6-0-1.
"Hopefully we can continue this momentum into our last conference game of the regular season," Duffy added.
Carson-Newman remains at No. 2 behind Columbus State in the NCAA Division II Women's Soccer Regional Rankings, following the new poll release today.
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