VIDEO: Stephen Lyons Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Navigating through a hour and five minute lightning delay, Carson-Newman (4-7-3, 3-5-1 SAC) got goals from Ben Dukes and Mitchell Honcoop to get past Wingate (5-6-1, 3-6) by a final score of 2-1 on Saturday evening at McCown Field.
"I liked the defensive effort," Carson-Newman head coach Stephen Lyons said. "Even with ten men, Wingate was putting us under some pressure in the second half. Fede (Federico Simonetti) made some good saves and there were some really good defensive blocks. The work rate from front to back was fantastic. Those first 30 minutes, we really combined well up until their red card. The guys stayed resilient and stayed in the game throughout."
Carson-Newman's win in the home regular season finale completes an unbeaten 2-0 week to end October, with both wins coming at McCown Field. The Eagles outscored their opponents 10-2 in the two victories. It's the most goals in back-to-back games since C-N scored 11 goals to begin the 2019 season.
The one-goal win is the program's first win against the Bulldogs at home since 2015. It's also the first win by exactly one goal this season and just the second in the past two seasons.
C-N posed a threat from the start. Less than one minute into the match, Ben Dukes (Southampton, England) fired the game's first shot, forcing WU goalkeeper Moritz Conrad to make a diving effort.
Daniel Vennesland (Tanager, Norway) and Antoine Torrent (Clermont ferrand, France) hit shots on goal in the 5th and 10th minutes but Conrad made two more stops.
C-N was able to break through in the 16th minute. Torrent delivered a lead pass ahead to Dukes who dribbled his way toward the box and rocketed a left-footed shot into the right side of goal to give the Eagles the 1-0 advantage.
The game would take a turn in the 30th minute. With Torrent breaking away toward the penalty area, Dennis Hamzic was trailing the play and tackled C-N's forward just outside the box. Hamzic was shown a red card, forcing WU to play down a man for the final 60 minutes. Conrad saved the initial shot off the close free kick just outside the box, but C-N kept the sequence alive. Torrent knifed his way through the left side of the box and dished a pass into the center where Mitchell Honcoop (Nieuw-Vennep, Netherlands) sent a left-footed shot into the upper left corner of goal to make it 2-0 Carson-Newman.
"In the first half, we did a great job finding our wide players," Honcoop said. "That helped set up the attack and really both goals as well. We created overloads for the wide players. The second goal obviously was good, it's always great to score again. Antoine (Torrent) on the left did a very good job to cross the ball, Dukes let it go through which was very important as well. They were both good goals."
WU would create some chances right before halftime. Federico Simonetti (Crema, Italy) was forced to make a pair of stops in the 32nd and 42nd minute to keep WU off the scoreboard at intermission.
The two teams waited 65 minutes to start the second half thanks to a lightning delay.
The Eagles would pick back up where they left off, but Conrad made two terrific saves in the first eight minutes of the second half to keep it a 2-0 deficit for WU.
Simonetti made a save in the 78th minute that led to a Wingate corner kick. C-N won the header, but it went straight to Josh Gallagher who volleyed a shot into the top right corner of goal to bring the Bulldogs within a goal.
WU almost had an equalizer in the 83rd minute. Pablo Pozos' shot dinged off the left post after he had Simonetti beat on the play. C-N's defense held strong, only allowing one more shot in the final six minutes to hold on for a 2-1 win.
The Eagles improve their record to 4-0-1 when leading at halftime and are now 4-1-2 when conceding one goal or less.
Dukes and Honcoop's goals were their fifths of the season, while Torrent had assists on both goals, giving him seven for the season.
Carson-Newman held a 18-11 advantage in shots and had 10-5 shots on goal advantage as well. The Eagles also took five of the eight corner kicks in the game.
Simonetti made four stops to win his third game of the season. Conrad kept WU in the game with his eight saves.
Carson-Newman gets a week of rest, before returning to action on Saturday at Anderson at 3:30 p.m. A live stream of the game is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/flomsoc.
Fans can also follow along by following @CN_Eagles on X (Twitter) and Instagram for in-game updates.
