JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – The Carson-Newman men's soccer team (6-1-1, 3-1 SAC) will have to deal with Hurricane Joaquin in addition to the Anderson (S.C.) Trojans (3-4-1, 2-2 SAC) at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday afternoon at Spartanburg Upward Stars Center in Spartanburg, S.C.
Anderson was originally slated to host the South Atlantic Conference contest before Mother Nature and Joaquin started to wreak havoc on the United States' East Coast and forced the moved to the artificial playing surface in Spartanburg.
The Eagles enter the contest on a four-game win streak after notching the second shutout of the year against Lees-McRae on Wednesday afternoon, while the Trojans dropped its last match 4-0 to No. 21 Young Harris.
"I don't think it will affect our game. I think it will affect both teams. Psychologically, as a team, it's going to come down to who is mentally stronger on the day and who can stay focused in the elements and get the job done," coach Richard Moodie said. "Thankfully, we've got a lot of boys from the United Kingdom so this is like an everyday occurrence from them back home. It shouldn't be anything too unusual from the norm for those guys."
The Trojans are 2-3 in their last five contests with wins at Tusculum and at Trojan Stadium over Coker, while losing at Wingate, Brevard and YHC.
Devon Ashy has played every minute in goal for the Trojans. The redshirt-junior has tallied 43 saves and has allowed 12 shots to find the back of the net for a save percentage of .78; the Greenville, S.C.'s 43 saves ranks 19th nationally and his 5.38 saves per game is good enough for 35th in Division II. Ashy has three shutouts on the year.
The Trojans' leading scorer is Erik Dahlbeck who has three goals and has recorded 16 shots. Preseason first-team All-SAC forward Andre Carle has one goal and an assist; Lars Kaula has two goals for AU.
"I think, psychologically, we are in a good position right now. We've seen a lot of good results and success on the field over the last few games. For us, I think it's important we build on that and get the mentality right and just focus on the energy and the positive attitude we bring to every game," Moodie said. "If that can continue, I think that we will see performances to continue to get better and hopefully results will continue to go our way. I think we've got to build on the win streak we've got here and take it back into conference play."
Junior Tom Read (London, England) has led the top-offense in the SAC the past two games with four points on a goal and two assists. Senior Lucas Siqueira (Sao Paulo, Brazil) has also been a major contributor to the C-N attack with goals in the last two contests.
Carson-Newman has won the last four matches between the two programs. Anderson's last win in there series came in the Palmetto State in 2011 when the then second-year SAC program won 3-1. C-N owns the series record 8-2.
The Eagles and Trojans kick off at 3:30 p.m. in Spartanburg. A full rundown of the contest will be available on cneagles.com following the conclusion of the match.
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