COLUMBUS, Ga. – #23 Columbus State (1-0) scored five second half goals to run away from Carson-Newman (0-1) to win the season opener 6-0 on Thursday afternoon at Walden Soccer Complex.
"We were way off the mark today," Carson-Newman head coach Simon Duffy said. "Columbus St has been going a couple of weeks longer than us and it showed. We will come back strong for our home opener on Saturday and we have to show a lot more character and desire if we are to win."
Columbus State wasted no time getting on the board. In the seventh minute, Emma Beddow dribbled into the box and found Sarah Hungerford who sent a shot that was deflected by a defender and found the back of the net to start the scoring.
Berna Kabakci (Zeddam, Netherlands) kept C-N within a goal plenty of times in the opening half. The sophomore goalkeeper made a pair of saves in the 34th and 37th minutes. Four minutes later, she made her third save of the half on a shot from the top of the penalty area to keep it a 1-0 game.
Carson-Newman went the entire first half without a shot, getting outshot 10-0.
The Cougars gained momentum early in second half. Vanessa Aviles found Beddow who rocketed a shot into the high right corner of goal to make it 2-0 just three minutes into the second half.
Six minutes later, Beddow found Aviles who slotted a shot into the lower left corner to increase the margin to 3-0.
Kabakci made four saves in the next ten minutes of the game, including three in a four-minutes stretch to keep it at a 3-0 deficit.
Mia Robinson and Ellie Henschel got in on the scoring action with goals in the 71st and 80th minutes. Shortly after, Ui Suzuki took and made a penalty kick to cap the second half scoring.
C-N's first shot of the game came from Savannah Fields (Johnson City, Tenn.) in the 84th minute. Krista Nielsen fired one wide right shortly after, with Fields taking a second shot with less than two minutes to go.
Kabakci made five more saves in the second half, to finish with eight in the game.
CSU outshot C-N 24-3 and 15-0 shots on goal. The Eagles were also held without a corner kick, conceding ten to the Cougars.
Carson-Newman gets one day off, before opening its home slate with a matchup versus Union on Saturday afternoon. First touch is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. A video stream is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/floFC.
