VIDEO: Richard Moodie Interview
VIDEO: Ashley Kelynack Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – Ashley Kelynack (High Wycombe, England) ripped a shot past the goalkeeper in the 106th minute to clinch a 2-1 victory for the Carson-Newman Eagles over the Anderson (S.C.) Trojans at McCown Field in Jefferson City, Tennessee on Saturday night.
The win snaps a three game losing streak for the Eagles and they are now 2-3 in the SAC and 5-4 overall. Anderson stays winless in the conference at 0-5 and 4-5 for the season as a whole.
"It's a fantastic feeling for the boys, of course," Soccer Coach Richard Moodie said. "I think this win just had to happen for us. Maybe not the prettiest game, but we did exactly what we asked the boys to do tonight. We got a quality strike from Ashley Kelynack and we're out of here with three points."
The play that ended the game was actually one Kelynack helped set up. A cross from him came to Tom Read (London, England), who knocked it out of bounds off an Anderson defender to set up a corner. Read sent the corner into the six-yard area and it was deflected to the top of the 18-yard box, where Kelynack was waiting to put it away. The score was his first collegiate tally.
The teams traded chances in what was an evenly matched first half. The Eagles totaled six shots compared to Anderson's three, with Joe Boyd (Nottingham, England) making one save and Devon Ashy, two.
In the second half, the action started to tilt in favor of Carson-Newman, as the Eagles had five corner kicks in the first 15 minutes of the half, but Anderson's defense continued to offer stiff resistance as it had during the first 45 minutes. It wasn't until the 66th minute that the Eagles grabbed the lead. Ellis Messham (Liverpool, UK) stole an Anderson pass in the C-N end of the field and found Evan Harr (Bristol, Tenn.) making a run across the midline. As Read went streaking towards the Trojans' net, Harr sent a through ball that his teammate ran down and Read flicked the ball past Ashy for his fourth goal in 2016.
That lead would be short-lived, as 11 minutes later, an opportunity presented itself for Anderson and they took advantage. A long ball from Timo Hermann found Cameron Emerson heading into the box. Emerson controlled the ball, sidestepped a defender and finished to tie the game. That's how it would remain until Kelynack's righteous strike.
On Wednesday, the King (Tenn.) Tornado visits McCown Field for a non-conference game that's schedule to begin at 7:30pm. Mark Inserra will call the match, which will be broadcast live on cneagles.com/live where you can also find up-to-the-minute stats. You can visit cneagles.com for the postgame wrap-up.
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