Lady Eagles topple Milligan with three second-half goals

Lady Eagles topple Milligan with three second-half goals

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Carson-Newman (4-5-2) defeated Milligan (4-8-1) 3-1 at home Wednesday evening.

 

The Buffaloes took an early lead on the Eagles. Lindsay Ogle received a pass from Christine Hardin in the 14th minute, took one touch past her defender and placed a shot near post to put Milligan on the scoreboard.

 

"I told the girls at halftime it was going to take something special to get us back in the game," Carson-Newman head soccer coach Richard Moodie said. "We had Gabby Gianeselli again coming up with the goods."

 

Twelve minutes into second half, Raquel Pimentel (New Port Richey, Fla.) laid a ball off for Gabby Gianeselli (Knoxville, Tenn.) to hit first time to even the score.

 

Gianeselli leads the Eagles in points and is tied for 10th in the SAC with 11. Both Gianeselli and junior captain Sidnee Edwards (Knoxville, Tenn.) are now tied for 13th in the SAC with four goals.

 

After 72 minutes of action, the Eagles took the lead. Freshman Lauren Morelock (Abingdon, Va.) laid off a ball in the box for a one-time hit by Edwards.

 

With seven minutes remaining, senior Danna Stringle (Woodstock, Ontario, Canada) scored to put the Eagles up 3-1 with an assist from Mikayla Gregg (Newport, Tenn.).

 

"It's not proven difficult for us to score goals," Moodie said, "but it's proven difficult for us to not give up goals."

 

Stringle leads the Eagles in shots taken with 33. She is in fourth place with eight points for C-N while Edwards and Gregg are tied for second with nine.

 

Edwards led the Eagles in shots having taken five, all of which were on target. Gregg had five shots with two on goal. Stringle and Gianeselli each released four shots and landed three on frame while Pimentel took three shots, all on net.

 

The Eagles outshot Milligan 27 to eight. Buffalo goalkeeper Lauren McInturff had 15 saves on the match.

 

"The girls are still maybe a little bit upset maybe with the way they played," Moodie said, "but we're happy with the way they fought back in the second half."

 

Senior captain Tiarna McKenna (Lisburn, Northern Ireland) and freshman Katy Hill (Farragut, Tenn.) each tallied three saves. McKenna is tied for eighth in the conference with 40 total saves.

 

"We're doing a good job going into the end of our season," Moodie said. "We'd like to think that we're going to play some of our best soccer here going into the tournament."

 

The Eagles pick back up with conference play at Coker at 4:30 p.m. Saturday.