Stephen Lyons Interview

Box Score

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – No. 11 Carson-Newman men's soccer (6-2-5, 4-1-4) suffered its first loss at home and in SAC play, falling to Lincoln Memorial (7-4-1, 5-2) tonight, 2-1.

"From our standpoint, absolutely not good enough," Carson-Newman head coach Stephen Lyons said. "I will give LMU credit, I thought they were a good team. They wanted it, they had energy, they were winning balls in the air. In the first half, it was really no contest, they were winning everything. A little improvement for us in the second half, but when you give yourself two goals to comeback against. It's just not good enough."

The loss ends an unbeaten streak of nine games. Despite the loss, C-N remains tied for first place in the South Atlantic Conference table with Catawba.

The Eagles defense was tested early. Senior goalkeeper Darrin De Meza made three saves in the first 15 minutes of action to help keep the match scoreless early on. LMU fired the first eight shots of the match, with the eighth one being the first goal of the night. Steven Stone sent a low cross that was headed in by Ronan O'Mahony to make it 1-0 in the 17^th minute.

Less than three minutes later, C-N had an answer on its first shot of the night. Senior Willem Kruijk chipped a pass behind the defense, allowing senior Harry Whitehead to run on and slot a shot in the bottom right corner to level the match in the 20^th minute.

The Railsplitters quickly regained the advantage. Christian Hatley was fouled by C-N in the box, setting up a penalty kick. Harry Cooke buried the PK in the bottom right corner to put LMU back in front at 2-1 in the 26^th minute.

C-N tried to quickly respond, as senior Nic Carsh hit the crossbar just six minutes later. De Meza made one more save in the 43^rd minute to keep the deficit at one goal heading into half. C-N was outshot 13-5 in the first half.

The Eagles offense got going early in the second half, firing the first three shots of the half but all were off target.

In the 64^th minute, Carsh yet again fired a header on target but goalkeeper Alan Johnson made the save. C-N's other shot on goal in the second half came in the 70^th minute on a header from Whitehead, that Johnson also stopped.

Neither team scored in the second half as LMU took the match 2-1. The Eagles were outshot 23-14. Carsh, Kruijk, and Whitehead combined for 11 of C-N's 14 shots.

De Meza made six saves in the match, three in each half.

C-N aims to get back on track Saturday afternoon aganist Catawba.