VIDEO: Stephen Lyons Interview
NEWBERRY, S.C. – Recording a fourth clean sheet this season, Carson-Newman (4-3-2, 2-2-1) used a dominant defensive performance to stave off Newberry (2-4-2, 1-3-2) Saturday night for a 1-0 road victory.
The win is C-N's first win on the weekend this season. The Eagles also stay unbeaten when facing the Wolves, extending its dominance to an impressive 28-0-2 record.
"Absolutely brilliant," Carson-Newman head coach Stephen Lyons said. "A lot of adversity leading up to the game and then even in the game. The team pulled through, going down ten men. The guys dealt with it, and dug in. The first 65-70 minutes, some of the football we played was exactly what we've been looking for. Good tempo, good combinations, really good movement and that's what came through to get the goal. Really good performance from the guys."
Carson-Newman had good chances to score early on. Three minutes apart, Daniel Vennesland (Tanager, Norway) and Harry Baggaley (Stoke-On-Trent, England) both delivered shots on target that were saved by Jacob Cotton.
The Eagles broke through in the 28th minute. Thomas De Graaw (Hoofddorp, Netherlands) delivered a great pass to Ben Dukes (Southampton, England) who scored his third career goal to put C-N up 1-0. It was De Graaw's fourth assist this season and Dukes' third goal of the year. It marks the second straight game the two have connected, De Graaw to Dukes for a goal.
Newberry failed to record a shot on target in the opening half and was outshot 10-4.
The Wolves did have chances to score an equalizer. Three minutes into the half, Seraphin Guetan sent a shot toward the bottom right corner of goal that Eric Thust saved.
De Graaw and Bart Schijvenaars (Amsterdam, Netherlands) both had shots on target in the 58th and 61st minutes that were saved by Cotton. Off of those C-N chances, Newberry countered the other way. Jose Puente had a pair of shots in a five-minute stretch saved by Thust.
Three minutes after nearly extending C-N's advantage, Jonas Friedl (Feldbach, Styria) was shown a red card after a foul in the 84th minute. Playing down a man, the Eagles did not surrender any shots during the 10v11 stretch and held on for a critical SAC victory.
C-N now has four clean sheets this year, the second in conference play and third this month.
Making just his fourth career start, Thust delivered with five saves and his first shoutout of his career.
Carson-Newman ended the match outshooting Newberry 18-11 and 8-5 on goal. The ten C-N corners were the second most in a game this year.
Harry Whitehead (Oxford, England) led the Eagles with four shots, with nine others at least taking one in the match as well.
Scoring the first and only goal tonight, C-N is 3-0-1 when doing so this season and 46-3-7 under Lyons.
The Eagles are without a mid-week match this week, but host Lenoir-Rhyne on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. The match can be viewed on FloSports with a subscription. As always, fans can follow along @CN_eagles on Twitter and Instagram for live updates throughout the game.
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