JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – Fresh off back-to-back wins over Flagler and USC-Aiken, the Carson-Newman men's soccer team opens the conference portion of their schedule by traveling to Newberry on Saturday afternoon for its first SAC match of 2016. Start time is scheduled for 3:30pm.
"Newberry last year had a fantastic team and played a tough schedule," Soccer Coach Richard Moodie said. "You can see a massive difference with this team already with a new coach. They've already won more games this year than last year. They work hard and they're difficult to beat and we have to play at their place, which makes it even tougher."
The Eagles bumped their record to 3-1 after knocking off Flagler on Saturday and Aiken on Monday, shutting out both teams. Steven Parry (Boulogne-Billancourt, France) and Tom Read (London, England) led the way against Flagler with Parry scoring twice and Read picking up a goal and three assists. The contest also saw Collin Hensel (Spring Hill, Tenn.) and Tobias Solem Karlsen (Kongsvinger, Norway) send in their first collegiate goals. Two days later, it was Samuel Amure's (London, England) first career goal that put the Eagles ahead and they held on to win 1-0, despite having to finish the match with 10 men. The C-N defense allowed just seven shots combined in the two games and freshman goalkeeper Joe Boyd stopped all seven.
Parry and Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway) currently lead the squad with two goals, while Read tops the Eagles with five assists and seven points. Read's five assists are tied for the most in the South Atlantic Conference and he's also tied for third in the league in points. Boyd's goals against average of 0.75 is third in the SAC.
Newberry began the year with wins over Georgia Southwestern and North Greenville, but they've since fallen back to .500 due to losses at the hands of Longwood and conference rival Catawba. They've scored just one goal combined in both losses. Against Catawba, they ceded two goals early in the second half and were only able to muster a score from Sterling Wendt in the 87th minute, losing 2-1.
Wendt is the only Newberry player with more than one goal, as his score against Catawba was his second in 2016. Defenseman Mark Hoog has the only assist for the Wolves this season. In goal, sophomore Brad Dixon has started every game this season and has accumulated 32 saves, including 14 in his team's loss to Longwood on September 10th.
The Eagles and Wolves will be playing for the 23rd time on Saturday and the Wolves are still searching for their first victory in the series. The closest they have come to a victory was in 2001, when the teams fought to a 2-2 tie. Carson-Newman won last year's meeting 3-1 as Staalby scored twice and Bruno Andrade (Sao Paulo, Brazil) contributed three assists.
A complete recap of Saturday's match will be posted on cneagles.com at the conclusion of the match.
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