September 5, 2021

Eagles fall in road opener against Mountain Lions

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two timely opportunities for the Mountain Lions of Young Harris (2-0-0, 0-0 PBC) proved too much for Carson-Newman to overcome (0-1-1, 0-0 SAC)

Carson-Newman

0-1-1, 0-0-0

Young Harris

2-0-0, 0-0-0

Final	1	2	T
Carson-Newman (0-1-1, 0-0-0)	0	0	0
Young Harris (2-0-0, 0-0-0)	1	1	2

Box Score (PDF)

JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. – Two timely opportunities for the Mountain Lions of Young Harris (2-0-0, 0-0 PBC) proved too much for Carson-Newman to overcome (0-1-1, 0-0 SAC) as the home team walked out with a 2-0 victory from the YHC Soccer and Lacrosse Field Sunday night.

With Sunday's result, it marks the first time since 2013 that the Eagles start a season with an 0-1-1 record. The Eagles started the 2013 season off with a nail-biting 2-2 draw against the Alabama-Huntsville Chargers before falling victim to the Trevecca Nazarene Trojans 3-2, both from McCown Field.

The series history is now 3-2 in favor of the Eagles as they have rattled off three of the five victories between the programs. In the series, Carson-Newman is outscoring Young Harris 6-4 after Sunday's result. This was the first series victory for Young Harris since 2013 when they claimed a 2-0 victory in the first-ever matchup of the two sides. Sunday also marks the second time Young Harris has defeated the Eagles at home in the five total contests.

"Disappointed with the overall quality today. We don't deserve to win the game," Carson-Newman coach Simon Duffy said. " Created good enough chances and controlled possession but lacked the final piece in front of goal."

It took until the 43^rd minute on Sunday for the scoring to be cracked open as Aimee Durn put the Mountain Lions ahead with a timely penalty kick. This was only the third shot attempt for Young Harris in the first half as they took advantage of an untimely foul by Lira Mathes (Knoxville, Tenn.) within the 18-yard-box.

After the first 45 was in the books, Carson-Newman saw nine shot attempts to their credit, with the best attempt coming from graduate student Emilee Futrell (Wilson, N.C.) in the 33^rd minute when she rocketed a shot from 35 yards out which ended up going just wide left of the post.

Carson-Newman goalkeeper Lilly Ebner (Hohentengen, Germany) made two saves on the three Mountain Lion attempts to keep the Eagles within one at the break. In the first 30 minutes of action, C-N was pushing on the offensive side of the ball as they had four early shot attempts, one of those forcing Young Harris's McKenna Peaster to make a save.

Once the second half kicked off, it was all Eagles as they fought to find an equalizer against the tenacious Mountain Lions defense. However, it was Young Harris taking advantage of a break-away attempt by Anika Elias in the 57^th minute to double the lead and almost certainly secure the victory for Young Harris. Elias was the recipient of a beautiful assist from Durn before beating Ebner and making it 2-0 Young Harris.

C-N got a solid opportunity by Futrell in the 68^th minute as she fired off a shot which deflected off the crossbar behind Peaster. Savannah Fields (Johnson City, Tenn.) attempted to get C-N on the board in the 76^th minute as she shot an attempt to the left of Peaster, but it was saved to keep the Eagles off the board.

Young Harris was inches away from making it a 3-0 advantage in the 79^th minute when Britt Verstegen got an assist and fired a shot by Ebner which was only inches away from trickling into the net.

"The positive is we get to go back out there and try again in a few days against Belmont Abbey," Duffy said.

Carson-Newman outshot Young Harris 18-5 in the contest with eight falling on frame compared to four of the Mountain Lions attempts falling on frame.

The Eagles lined up for five corners in the contest while Young Harris was awarded a pair. Entering Sunday, C-N was 20-6 when taking more corners than their opposition while also being 25-5-1 when holding the overall shot advantage.

Henry led the way for the Eagles with five shot attempts and one on goal. Futrell added four attempts to bring her career total as an Eagle to 222, which is good to maintain the fifth-most attempts in program history. Of her four attempts, two fell on goal for Futrell which moves into sole possession of fifth place in program history with 106, four behind Claire Ramsdale who held 110 in her career.

Ebner compiled two saves in the loss, falling to 0-1-1 on the 2021 season.

Aimee Durn was the leading shot taker for Young Harris as all three of her shot attempts also fell on goal. Peaster made eight saves on the 18 Eagle attempts she faced to keep C-N scoreless through all 90 minutes.

Carson-Newman continues their early season road trip as they return to action Wednesday against the Belmont Abbey Crusaders for a 4:30 p.m. kick from Alumni Field in Belmont, N.C.

Fans can watch the action via Belmont Abbey Athletics at https://www.conferencecarolinasdn.com/bac/ with live in-match updates coming on Twitter from @CN_Eagles.

-CN-