JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman men's soccer team (1-0) ventures onto the road for the first time in 2015 as the Eagles travel to Belmont Abbey (1-1) for a 4 p.m. Wednesday afternoon contest against the Crusaders at Alumni Field.
C-N is fresh off a 3-1 win on Saturday over the 21st-ranked Alabama-Huntsville Chargers, while the Crusaders split their first two contests of the season against South Atlantic Conference foes Lenior-Rhyne and Newberry.
"A team that has only conceded one goal in two games, so it is a tough place to go and play and get a good result," coach Richard Moodie said of the Trojans. "They've obviously had a good result against Newberry, a conference opponent for us, 4-0."
Freshman Thibault Mathorez (Graces, France) scored in his Carson-Newman debut against the Chargers on Saturday. Mathorez's goal marked the fifth-consecutive season where an Eagle making his Orange and Blue debut tallied a goal as he followed in the footsteps of Joao Pedro Dowsley, Sindre Welo (Trondheim, Norway), Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway) and Tanner Heath (Murfreesboro, Tenn.).
Carson-Newman's record in road openers is less than desirable, as the Eagles own a 9-12-1 in the aforementioned contests dating back to 1993. Last season, C-N tallied four goals against Tampa in the road opener but had to forfeit the match due to an ineligible player.
Wednesday's match against the Crusaders kicks off a two-game stretch of opponents from Conference Carolinas for Carson-Newman. Since 2010, the Eagles own a 9-4 record over foes from Conference Carolinas, including a 2-1 record against Abbey.
Belmont Abbey plays a 3-5-2 formation and returns its top-three scorers from 2014 in juniors Clay Dimick and Jordan Gardner and senior Declan McQuillian. Dimick tallied six goals last year, while Gardner contributed four scores and McQuillian added three. The Crusaders also have goalkeeper Luke Whelan back who has only allowed one goal in two starts this year.
Last year, Abbey finished the year with a 4-9-4 record and went 2-6-2 in in Conference Carolinas play. The Crusaders went 0-5 against teams that finished ranked in the Southeast region.
In two games in 2015, Belmont has scored four goals, all against the Newberry Wolves last Saturday. They average 15 shots per game and have conceded just one goal thus far. The two Crusader goalkeepers possess a .909 save percentage and have recorded a shutout.
"We anticipate the formation they play, they will be very vulnerable in the back and perhaps left wide open. They are fit and very energetic. I know they will cause a lot of problems for us," Moodie said. "It is important for us to go there disciplined, understand what we are going to do. For us, we have to go there with the right mindset, the same mindset that we build on the same energy from Saturday and look to pick up our first road win this year."
Carson-Newman and Belmont Abbey are meeting for the sixth-time in the series and the Eagles own a 3-1-1 record over the Crusaders. C-N is currently riding a two-game winning streak after winning the last match-up between the two programs with a 2-1 win at Alumni Field back in 2013.
Full results and a recap will be available on cneagles.com following Wednesday's match. Live video of the match will be available here.
