VIDEO: Richard Moodie Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn – A first half goal by Victor Peres provided the only tally of the night as the Lincoln Memorial Railsplitters held off the Carson-Newman men's soccer team, 1-0, on Tuesday night in McCown Field.
For the Eagles, this marks their fifth loss in six games, and they fall to 7-9 overall and 3-7 in the South Atlantic Conference. LMU improves to 10-5 with a 6-4 conference mark.
"[Our players] are working hard," coach Richard Moodie said. "They always say hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard, but sometimes you need to work hard and you have to have that talent. You have to have that moment of quality. We're working hard, but you have to create you're own luck and you have to create chances. We're behind them 110% and I'm proud of the hard work and the effort and overcoming adversity, but I still think we've got enough quality on the field to win games."
The Railsplitters found the back of the net in the 28th minute off a set piece that came from a foul called on Ellis Messham (Liverpool, United Kingdom). Peres took the kick and his shot to the right side of the goal beat Aaron Zavolokin (Sydney, Australia) for a 1-0 lead.
Carson-Newman nearly found the equalizer in the 31st minute. Marius Staalby (Trondheim, Norway) took the ball down the right side of the field while Tom Read (London, England) made a run down the middle towards the LMU net. Staalby's cross found Read's head just outside the six-yard box, but the junior's header was high over the crossbar. Not much later, Read had another chance on a free kick from 25 yards out. The midfielder sent a screaming shot towards the net, but goalie August Ahlin made a desperate dive and deflected the ball wide, thwarting another chance.
The second half was largely uneventful until the last few minutes. In the 88th minute, Poly Avgousti (Paphos, Cyprus) sent a cross towards the box that was knocked around a few times until it came to the feet of Tobias Solem Karlsen (Kongsvinger, Norway), who uncorked a shot that was just wide and barely missed tying the game.
The Eagles last chance came thanks to an LMU foul in the 90th minute. With almost the entire C-N team pushed forward, Read blasted a free kick towards the opposing goal. Zavolokin was on the other end and directed a header on frame, but Ahlin was perfectly positioned for save and the clock ran out. The Railsplitters keeper finished his night with eight saves.
The final game of the regular season for C-N is on Saturday against Coker at McCown Field. The match has a scheduled start time of 4:30 p.m. Saturday will also be Senior Day for men's soccer. Each of the squad's seniors will be honored in a pregame ceremony. Audio of the match will be available on cneagles.com, as well as live stats.
-CN-
