JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Columbus State head coach Jay Entlich and Carson-Newman head coach Simon Duffy along with forward Magda Mosengo address the media after the Eagles 6-0 win on Friday night.
Entlich Opening Statement: Give all the credit to Carson-Newman they were by far the better team tonight. They wanted to win tonight and I really have nothing else to say because they were the better team tonight. They competed, they scored when they needed too and they were better on the ball. Ultimately, I hope they go and win it all. I feel bad saying this, but this is the best Carson-Newman team I've played the past 14 years. This is by far the best team that I have seen at Carson-Newman.
Question 1: What was one moment that might have been the most difficult for your team in this game?
Entlich: I'm not really going to blame it on one, but set pieces are really important in soccer. When I look back, we gave up three goals on set pieces today. Not saying that was the only thing but by far they were just way better than we were today. We were outclassed, it was a great environment give credit to Carson-Newman the fan base was awesome tonight. We knew that it was going to be a tough place to play. Again, I hope that they go and represent the Southeast. I'm good friends with West Florida coach, but I am rooting for the Southeast region and I hope they go and do great things. This is by far the best team that we have played this year and we played some good teams. No, disrespect to Grand Valley they are good too, North Georgia, UNC Pembroke and Georgia College beat us. This is by far the best team that we have played all year.
Question 2: How proud were you of the way your girls responded after the halftime break?
Entlich: All the credit goes to the goal keeper at Carson-Newman. She is a great goal keeper and I said that to the staff two years ago when we came here. I hate saying this but the difference was the goal keeper. If your goal keeper stays healthy, I think that Carson-Newman goes a long way.
Question 3: What was the message to the team after the match?
Entlich: It is crazy. With success comes complacency and I think with our group the message was that they assumed it was going to happen. It was the first time in a long time that we haven't won our conference out right, haven't won the tournament championship and haven't gone on to the final four. I think we have a lot of young kids and they have to learn that everything has got to be earned. I look at Carson-Newman where they were two years ago when we came up here to know and they were hungry for it. Credit to them they were great tonight.
Duffy Opening Statement: I don't really know what to say. I never dreamed that it would end up a score line like that. I am beyond ecstatic at the way that we played and it's a benchmark of how well you play against Columbus State because of how well they have done over the past six or seven years. What the coaching staff has done there has been amazing. We got a lot of luck today, some calls that went our way and some fantastic finishes. I don't really know how to describe it accept it was amazing.
Question 1: There were some girls on the 2015 team that lost to Columbus State, was tonight a statement game for them?
Duffy: We mentioned it and they were aware of it and especially at halftime. We wanted to make sure that nothing was set in stone because we had 45 minutes left to play against a quality opponent. They may have been 10th in the country, but what they have done over the past several years it was a benchmark for us. At halftime we made sure to remind the girls that we had been up before on a good team like this and two years ago they got beat and last year they got beat by North Georgia. Nothing was set in stone but it was amazing.
Question 2: What was something that you saw in the Cougars defense that allowed you to put up points?
Mosengo: Our ability to penetrate and manipulate there back three. We have an offense that is probably one of the best in the nation and I think tonight we were able to exploit that with our speed and our strength.
Question 3: Columbus State was one of the top scoring offenses in the nation, what did you see out of Jackie Burns today?
Mosengo: Like we see from her every week. She is cool, collected, strong and a presence in the goal. She stopped them from getting a few goals, all credit to her today.
Question 4: Coach Entlich said that you were the best team that they had faced all season, can you keep things rolling against West Florida on Sunday afternoon?
Duffy: It is very tough. Somebody will look at that score line and go oh that was a walkover but that is the farthest from the truth. Emotionally a lot goes into a game like that. We need to make sure that the girls are grounded and that we recover well tomorrow. We will watch some video tomorrow, it will be a long night. I will have to stay up and watch some video. For him to say something like that is fantastic. I can only hope that this hasn't taken too much out of us for Sunday's game because West Florida is a formidable opponent. They were down in the game today and turned it around in the second half and came out victorious after penalty kicks. They played an extra 20 minutes than we did tonight and that is going to take its toll. Very happy with us doing it in the 90 minutes and I'm just hoping that the girls can play half as good as that on Sunday.
