Carson-Newman Men’s Soccer Midfielders Position Preview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- The second of a three-part series highlighting each of the Carson-Newman men’s soccer positions moves back the field to look at the midfielders for the 2021 campaign with senior Greg Evans.
VIDEO: Greg Evans Interview
JEFFERSON CITY, Tenn. -- The second of a three-part series highlighting each of the Carson-Newman men's soccer positions moves back the field to look at the midfielders for the 2021 campaign with senior Greg Evans.
Captaining his final season with the Eagles after joining in 2016, the Wrexham, Wales native is part of the second-largest group on the roster with 10 midfielders vying for playing time. Of those 10, six are making the quick turn back as returners, led by the reigning South Atlantic Conference Freshman of the Year Theo Hardenby Öhrwall (Stockholm, Sweden) and fellow All-SAC selections Thaylan Silva (São Paulo, Brazil) and Evans who helped lead the team to a second-straight season of closing the regular season at the top of the conference standings.
"Looking back over the past couple of years, we've had not that many numbers in midfield, like it's been just a set maybe two or three," Evans said," but this year we've got a lot of guys that can play both center back, right back, center mid."
This year's midfielders bring back 10 of the 21 goals the Eagles scored throughout the spring campaign. Within that, Hardenby Öhrwall and Silva accounted for four each while leading the team with five assists a piece for 13 points, tying them for the second-most in the league.
Hardenby Öhrwall made a massive impact in his first year donning the Orange and Blue that earned him the program's second Freshman of the Year honor. His first game with the Eagles was one for the record books, scoring two goals and providing an assist in the 4-1 season-opening win at Belmont Abbey, making him the first Eagle to score five points in a match since 2017. Eventually, that outing earned him the first Offensive Player of the Week plaudit for a C-N freshman since the league started announcing them in 2006. He also moved into a tie for the third-most assists in a single game with three in a 3-0 win at Mars Hill on April 1.
Between his All-SAC counterparts at the position, Silva and Evans have proven to be seasoned veterans for the team, coming into the season as two of three players with at least four years of substantial playing time under their belts. Together, the pair has accounted for 7,859 minutes of playing time with 90 starts in 112 matches played.
Silva comes into the year with a chance to move into the upper echelon of the career records for career assists, penalty kicks made and penalty kicks attempted. He currently sits tied for sixth with 15 career assists since 2017 and is tied for third with three successful PKs while tying for sixth with three attempts.
As for Evans, the two-time All-SAC second team selection has become a hallmark for the Starting XI since 2017, playing in 56 matches in that span with 55 starts. Since coming to C-N in 2016, he has tallied the third-most career minutes in program history with 4,853.
"I thought about that a lot, to be honest, you know, but, honestly, it's not really about me. It's just about winning as a team," Evans said. "I know that sounds really cliché, but obviously the best thing to go out for as captain and being here this long, I just want to win SAC Tournament, SAC Conference, everything, I just want to win it all. If the minutes do come and I become the overall (leader), I'd just be over the moon, but honestly, just winning as a team is the overall goal for everything."
Yannick Kranz (Hannover, Germany), Matheus Maia (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Gabe Stevens (Murfreesboro, Tenn.) make up the remaining returners to the midfield this season. Both Kranz and Maia scored a goal in the spring. Kranz made eight starts in 10 appearances while Maia played in seven games with one assist.
"Obviously this year, we've got Theo, Thay, Yannick coming back in from last year and obviously, last year was a successful season and the year before was even more successful, so it's just keeping that winning mentality because since I was a freshman to now, we have grown so much. Like, now the standard is winning the SAC every year and anything below that is not acceptable, so I think with the new guys, letting them know this team wants winners and that's it, that's the only thing that we require from everyone."
The midfield adds four new faces this season looking for reps, including Jannik Schulte (Dormagen, Germany), Douglas Bengtsson (Eskilstuna, Sweden), Daniel McIlroy (Larne, Northern Ireland) and Colby Dorn (Piedmont, S.C.).
Bengtsson logged playing time with the Swedish National Team in 2017 and 2018, playing in two national matches against Finland. He was credited with an assist in a 3-0 win in the first of those two matches. He also won the regional championship with BK Sport in 2017.
Dorn was a four-year varsity player and senior team captain for Wren High School. In that time, he was also tabbed a two-time Category V MVP and won All-State and All-Conference honors in his senior campaign. He scored 25 goals in 16 games during his final season, tallying 22 assists. Dorn also won the 2020 premier boys state championship in 2020 with club squad Clemson Anderson Soccer Alliance, serving as the team captain in his senior season.
The men's soccer position previews finish out on Sunday with Ben King analyzing the defenders and goalkeepers.
