October 10, 2025

First-half goals lead to a 1-1 draw between C-N and Mars Hill

Entering Friday night’s action, no team in the South Atlantic Conference had tied more games in league play than Mars Hill. Carson-Newman (1-6-3, 1-3-1 SAC) helped add to that ledger, seeing Mars Hill (3-2-6, 1-1-4 SAC) score an equalizing goal with 11 seconds left in the first half, which turned out to be the final goal of the match in a 1-1 tie at Meares Stadium.

Carson-Newman

1-6-3, 1-3-1

Mars Hill

3-2-6, 1-1-4

Final	1	2	T
Carson-Newman (1-6-3, 1-3-1)	1	0	1
Mars Hill (3-2-6, 1-1-4)	1	0	1

Box Score (PDF)

MARS HILL, N.C. – Entering Friday night's action, no team in the South Atlantic Conference had tied more games in league play than Mars Hill. Carson-Newman (1-6-3, 1-3-1 SAC) helped add to that ledger, seeing Mars Hill (3-2-6, 1-1-4 SAC) score an equalizing goal with 11 seconds left in the first half, which turned out to be the final goal of the match in a 1-1 tie at Meares Stadium.

"I thought we played some of our best soccer tonight, especially in the first half," Carson-Newman head coach Stephen Lyons said. "We deserved to take the lead there, but to concede a set piece with 11 seconds on the clock is a tough one to take. It felt that played into a very sluggish start in the second half and Mars Hill was better for around 20 minutes of the second half. After that, both teams created opportunities but just missed that final piece. We can take a lot of positives from the game and again I thought the lads effort was fantastic."

The draw is the third of the season for C-N, first in conference play. All three ties have been by 1-1 tallies.

It's the sixth time in ten games this season that the Eagles have allowed just one goal to score in a match. They are 1-2-3 in those six matches.

Two of the past three meetings with the Lions have ended in ties.

Mars Hill's Joshua Moore to the game's first two shots. He missed the target in the 5th and 8th minutes.

The game's next shot was Carson-Newman's first in the 30th minute. Off a Maxime Wester (Brussel, Belgium) cross, Rhydian Williams (Conwy, Wales) sent a shot on frame to force MHU goalkeeper Logan Cassel into his first save of the match.

Shortly after, a C-N attack forward would lead to a penalty kick opportunity. Williams had lots of room nearing the box. Once he made his way into the penalty area, he was able to dribble past a Mars Hill defender and was tackled before he could attempt a point-blank shot at goal. The official awarded Carson-Newman a penalty kick. Mitchell Honcoop stepped up to take it for the Eagles and buried it in the bottom right corner to make it 1-0 Eagles in the 34th minute.

Honcoop's penalty kick goal was his second this year and the fourth of his career. He remains perfect in penalty kick goals for his career.

The Lions applied constant pressure forward on Carson-Newman's defense for the final ten minutes of the opening half. That attacking pressure led to five corner kicks and an equalizing goal with 11 seconds left in the first half. Jens Haukeland's corner kick was headed on by Mathias Mjaavatn into the upper right corner of goal to level the match at intermission.

Mars Hill took three early shots after halftime, the latter of which was the most threatening. Haukeland took possession after a C-N deflection and just narrowly missed the target with C-N goalkeeper Elijah Buford (Atlanta, Ga.) charging out to try and stop the attempt in the 53rd minute.

Carson-Newman began taking its chances, firing three shots in two minutes. Tim Haans (Tilburg, Netherlands) took the latter of the three, and just barely missed over top the crossbar in the 62nd minute.

A quality run up the sideline for Isaac Pascal (Southend, England) led to a the senior taking a shot from just inside the box, forcing Cassel to make a diving stop to his right in the 73rd minute.

The Eagles' first corner kick of the match came in the 82nd minute. MHU defended it well, not allowing a shot off the corner.

A second and third corner kick came in the final five minutes of the match. A Mars Hill defender headed away the first of the sequence. The second one led to a Wester shot, that missed wide right of goal in the 88th minute.

Carson-Newman continued to threaten the goal late in the match. Off a free kick from midfield, Felix Gruemmer and Jakob Lechner sent shots toward goal, but were both kept out of the net by Cassel to keep the match level after 90 minutes.

Cassel made four saves for MHU, two of which were in the final 90 seconds. C-N's Buford made one stop on two Lions shots on target.

The Eagles managed to put five of their ten shots on goal, while the Lions only had two of their 12 find the target.

Eight different Eagles recorded a shot.

Mars Hill held a 7-3 advantage in corner kicks, six of those were in the first half.

Carson-Newman is off until next weekend, when it hosts Lenoir-Rhyne on October 18th at 5:00 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network is available with a subscription to FloSports at cneagles.com/floMsoc.