Carson-Newman Men’s Soccer Position Previews: Defenders and Goalkeepers
Our preview of the 2025 Carson-Newman men’s soccer team concludes with a preview of the defenders and goalkeepers with help from junior defender Dan Coles.
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. - Our preview of the 2025 Carson-Newman men's soccer team concludes with a preview of the defenders and goalkeepers with help from junior defender Dan Coles.
Coles leads a deep group of defenders, consisting of six returners and four newcomers. He is coming off a sophomore season in which he was one of just four Eagles to start every game they played in 2025. The Englishman has made 23 starts over his first two seasons in Mossy Creek and is coming off a season in which he played the third-most minutes on the team with more than 1200.
"A lot of the experienced lads helped me right away," Coles said. "It really helped having the older lads on the team help me through that first season. Hopefully we can do the same for the younger lads coming through this year."
Daniel Vennesland graduated from this group of defenders, but he is the only departure. The most experienced defender in terms of starts, in the group, is graduate student Jakob Lechner (Enzesfeld-Lindabrunn, Austria). He is the only player remaining from the program's 2021 South Atlantic Conference regular season title team. Over three playing seasons, Lechner has 33 career starts with one career goal and one career assist.
Other graduate students in the room include Jay Whyatt (Petersborough, England) and Tobias Hager (Vienna, Austria). Both defenders ready for their second seasons with C-N after making a combine 18 appearances in 2024.
"We've got winners in the group," Coles said. "Jakob (Lechner) has won here, Jay (Whyatt) has two rings, and Maxime (Wester)just won a championship this summer. We've got loads of experience and winners. We know at the end of the day, if you don't concede you can't lose."
The list of experienced returners continues. Isaac Pascal (Southend-on-Sea, England) is back for his senior season. No player on the roster has more appearances than his 42. Pascal made an impact offensively and defensively as a junior. The defender scored his first career goal against Montevallo on September 11th and added a second in early October against Emory & Henry. He also recorded two assists and made a career-high 10 starts.
Like Coles, Jonas Friedl (Feldbach, Styria) approaches his upperclassmen years after making 23 appearances and 17 starts as an underclassman. Friedl scored his first career goal this past season in an 8-0 win over Newberry on October 23rd. In Friedl's six starts in 2024, C-N was 3-2-1 and recorded four shutouts.
"Defensively you need to know how each other defend," Coles said. "We've spent multiple years together now. I think last year we got better as the season progressed because we continued to learn how each other played. Spending so much time together helped the chemistry build. Hopefully this year, we can integrate the new lads into it as well."
Even with six returning defenders on the roster, the Eagles added four freshman to the group. Mark Howard and Cole Stopka are local products. Howard is from Kodak and played his high school soccer at Seymour High School. Stopka is from Knoxville and was an all-region defender at Bearden High School.
The two other freshman come internationally. Bink Groothuijs is from Rotterdam, Netherlands and Julian Umanzor is from San Jose, Costa Rica.
Transitioning to the goalkeepers, Carson-Newman will have a brand new player in the net for 2025. Federico Simonetti and Paul Moser both started games in goal this past season and have graduated. Head coach Stephen Lyons addressed the need by adding two freshman and one transfer.
Elijah Buford (Atlanta, Ga.) transfers in from Jacksonville University. He spent the past two seasons with the Dolphins, but did not make any appearances.
The two freshman that will vie for time in goal are Azrael Phillips (Mascot, Tenn.) and Arturo Rojas Quesada (San Jose, Costa Rica).
Phillips is from Mascot, playing his high school soccer at West. Phillips helped lead West to an 11-4-1 record and posted six clean sheets.
Rojas Quesada is from San Jose, Costa Rica where he won the NCISAA State Championship as the starting goalkeeper for Rabun Gap Naoochee School. In eighteen games, Rojas Quesada made 75 saves and posted 10 shutouts with a .930 save percentage.
"I've had Federico (Simonetti) for both years so far," Coles said. "Elijah (Buford) came in the spring, so we had that whole season with him. He is a great keeper. The two new lads Azra (Phillips) and Arturo are both very good as well. Hopefully they can push each other for that spot in goal."
Carson-Newman opens the 2025 season on September 4th, on the road against Trevecca Nazarene at 6:00 p.m. The game can be streamed on FloSports with a subscription. Fans can also follow along to @CN_Eagles on X (Twitter) and Instagram for in-game updates.
