GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – Carson-Newman used a second-straight 3-0 victory over Tusculum to sweep the home-and-home with its rival on Monday evening at Pioneer Field in the penultimate South Atlantic Conference match of the season.
Much like the home match on Friday, three different Eagles netted goals for Carson-Newman (5-1-1, 4-1 SAC). The group landed a season-high 11 shots on goal. Bram Kaarsgaren (Den Bosch, the Netherlands) and the backline withstood 11 shot attempts from Tusculum (1-4-1, 0-4-1 SAC) with the Eagles netminder grabbing all six of the shots that hit on frame for a new season-best.
"Another great performance and result today," Carson-Newman coach Stephen Lyons said. "A very good effort and for the second game in a row, we had players coming off the bench and impacting the game. The combinations for our first and third goals were brilliant. Also great to keep another clean sheet before a tough test Thursday at Mars Hill."
The Eagles have now gone 422:14 of total gameplay without allowing a goal. Kaarsgaren moves into eighth for career-clean sheets at 9.1, five of those coming this season. He is 5-1-1 on the year.
Lyons' group moves into first place within the Pod 3 standings, jumping Mars Hill with three points from the win.
This is the first win for C-N at Pioneer Field since Oct. 27, 2015. In the series with Tusculum, the Eagles now hold their first pair of back-to-back wins since 2015 and 2016. The sequential clean sheets in this sweep are the first for the team in their overall series with the Pioneers.
C-N moves to four-straight shutout wins this year, matching the longest winning-streak the unit has seen since it won four consecutive in October 2019. The Eagles also extend their unbeaten streak in conference road tilts to eighth-straight since Oct. 20, 2018, going 5-0-3 in that span.
Harrison Collins (Cardiff, Wales) put C-N on the board in the 41st minute. Quick giveaways between Matheus Maia (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Benjamin Stein (Berlin, Germany) left the ball at the feet of Collins. He split between a pair of Pioneers to push forward his first career goal.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) March 29, 2021
Slips by not ☝️ but ✌ Pioneers for his first career goal.
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Carson-Newman struck again, this time off a free-kick. Theo Hardenby Öhrwall (Stockholm, Sweden) lined up on the left side of the pitch and sent a shot inside the right side of the six-yard box. His look found the head of a leaping Harry Whitehead (Oxford, England) to put the unit up 2-0, the third of the season for the sophomore.
The play marked the first time since Nov. 6, 2019 that the Eagles scored off of a set-piece, also coming at Tusculum.
Thaylan Silva (São Paulo, Brazil) jumped onto the scoring carousel in the 56th minute. Ben King (Hertfordshire, England) passed off a forward dish that Nic Carsh (Newberg, Ore.) quickly collected. His cross to an open Silva was launched right past Tusculum's Joao Kozlowski, giving C-N the deciding 3-0 advantage.
In each of his three trips to Pioneer Field, Silva has left with a goal in-hand.
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— Carson-Newman Athletics (@CNathletics) March 29, 2021
Thaylan Silva has now scored in all three of his visits to Pioneer Field.
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C-N faced its second-closest shot margin this season, out-shooting Tusculum 16-11. Whitehead led the way for the group with six shot attempts, marking the fourth-consecutive match where he has sent out the most chances. His five on frame are a new season-high for the entire group. The Orange and Blue matched the most points it has scored this season with 11.
The Eagles forced Kozlowski to make eight saves throughout the affair, the second most of a C-N opponent this season.
Both Damien Baltide and Ignacio Alconchel led Tusculum with three shots attempts with Alconchel landing all of his on goal.
A season-high 11 bookings came throughout the match, five of those against the Eagles. All-told, 33 fouls were whistled, matching the total from the season-opener at Belmont Abbey for the season-high.
The regular-season finale takes Carson-Newman to the Tar Heel State for a Thursday night meeting with Mars Hill, a side it currently leads by two points within the Pod 3 standings. Kickoff from the Ammons Family Athletic Center and Meares Stadium is slated for 7:30 p.m.
