JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – A second-straight win over a ranked foe is on the line as the Carson-Newman men's soccer team (9-2-1, 5-2 SAC) hosts the No. 7 Wingate Bulldogs (10-1-2) Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. at McCown Field in a contest between two of top three teams in the South Atlantic Conference.
Wingate leads the league by six over Carson-Newman and Anderson (S.C.) who are both tied for second. The Eagles knocked off No. 16 Young Harris on Tuesday night 3-0 in a contest against two of the top teams in the Southeast region, while the Bulldogs fell to No. 21 Lander 3-0 for their first loss in 2015.
Carson-Newman has never beat Wingate when the Bulldogs were ranked. C-N is 0-1-1 all-time against a ranked Wingate side. The two teams tied 3-3 in 2002 and the Bulldogs won in double-overtime in 2013 at McCown Field 2-1. Carson-Newman has n0t beat a top-10 team in the regular season since 2004 when the Eagles beat #10 Tusculum 4-3 in double-overtime at McCown Field.
"It's important that the guys can build off Tuesday's performance. I don't think that loss for Wingate will affect them too drastically. I think they will come in here and mean business. They've showed all year they can be consistent," coach Richard Moodie said. "As a team, I think we saw our best performance in a long time on McCown Field on Tuesday and I expect the same out of the boys on Saturday. They will expect the same, too."
Each of the last three matches between the two programs have ended in overtime and 10 of the 29 contests between Carson-Newman and Wingate have taken extra time to be determined. The Bulldogs own the series record at 14-11-5 and they have won the last three editions of the rivalry. C-N's last win over Wingate was in 2011 when the Eagles won 2-0.
For this year's edition, the Bulldogs tout a high-power offense with an average of 2.15 goals per game, which ranks 35th in the nation. Former SAC Player of the Week Jon Ander leads the Bulldogs with seven goals, while reigning SAC Player of the Year Charlie Machell has six goals and Callum Ross has five scores.
Defensively, Wingate has the 16th-lowest goals against average in the NCAA Division II as teams only score 0.75. Carson-Newman counters with the 14th-best offense that averages 2.75 goals. Pablo Jara is the lone goalkeeper to play for Wingate this season. The freshman from Chile has played in 1,080 minutes and has conceded just nine goals. Jara has conceded just three goals in SAC play and has four clean sheets against SAC foes Carson-Newman has never beat Wingate when the Bulldogs were ranked.
"For them to get mentally prepared, they already are. They know what they are expecting. They're in a good position right now. Psychologically, they are coming off a back of a great win. Hopefully, on Saturday, we can prove truly what we are capable of," Moodie said."
The contest kicks off at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday on the Eagle Sports Network as Michael Wottreng has the call; a recap of the contest's proceedings will be available on cneagles.com following the contest.
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