Embry-Riddle vs. Johnson & Wales Match Notes

GAMEDAY CENTRAL
NAIA #21 Embry-Riddle (0-1-2, 0-0-0) at Johnson & Wales (3-3-0, 0-0-0)
DATE: Saturday, Sept. 27, 2014
CITY: North Miami, Fla.
SITE: Wildcat Field
START: 2 p.m.
LIVE STATS: Embry-Riddle Gameday Network
EMBRY-RIDDLE'S LAST 5 GAMES: 1-1-3
EMBRY-RIDDLE'S LAST 10 GAMES: 4-3-3
JOHNSON & WALES' LAST 5 GAMES: 2-3
JOHNSON & WALES' LAST 10 GAMES: 4-6

CONFERENCE SLATE BEGINS IN NORTH MIAMI
After Wednesday's rain-out against Northwood, the Eagles will begin the 2014 Sun Conference schedule on the road against Johnson & Wales. The Eagles are 0-1-2 on the year, suffering their first loss last Wednesday at Rollins.

Veit Couturier continues to lead the Eagle offensive attack with three goals in three matches while Daniel Gylfason has chipped in a goal and two assists. Moriba Ballah, the only other Eagle to notch a goal on the year, will return to the Eagles after sitting out last Wednesday's game following a pair of yellow cards against Barry on Sept. 13.

Nils Carlson has minded the net for the Blue and Gold for four seasons, and now in his senior campaign has played in all 314+ minutes of action for ERAU with 22 saves.

ABOUT THE WILDCATS
Johnson & Wales enters Saturday's game at 3-3 overall with three straight wins to open the season followed by three consecutive losses. JWU features a potent offense that averages 2.67 goals per game on 12.3 shots.

Steve Njike, Pedro Codo and Youri Derine pace the Wildcats with five, four and three goals, respectively while four different Wildcats have seen time in net.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET
Sept. 28, 2013 - DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - In four previous meetings, the Embry-Riddle Eagles had outscored the Johnson & Wales Wildcats 48-0. The impressive offensive trend continued on Saturday evening as the host Eagles scored seven times against JWU in a shutout victory to move to 4-1 overall and 2-0 in The Sun Conference. Johnson & Wales (7-2, 0-2) couldn't solve the Eagle defense, led by Nils Carlson as the junior goalkeeper recorded his 15th career shutout by making five saves.

The Blue and Gold got off to a fantastic start less than four minutes into the game when a bad clearance by Johnson & Wales in its penalty area found Veit Couturier who passed the ball along to Ally MacDonald and the senior from Inverness, Scotland easily slid his shot by Chris De La Cruz in goal for a 1-0 advantage.

Embry-Riddle didn't wait long to go up by two scores when MacDonald made it a double as a well-timed give-and-go between him and Nicklas Petersson at the top of the penalty box allowed the defender to slot home his second goal of the night (third of the season) in the eighth minute.

The Wildcats hung tough with the Eagles for the next 25 minutes, but another Scotland product put the hosts up 3-0 when Alan Vezza buried the ball after Sigurbergur Elisson crossed it to Couturier in the box and Couturier created some space for Vezza to finish the play for his first goal of the year.

Couturier would score his first non-penalty kick goal just seven minutes later on a beautiful pass from Marcus Starke, who had just entered the match and made his first touch on the ball. Couturier's goal stretched the lead to 4-0 in favor of the hosts and that score would hold up into the half.

All four of the Eagles' first half shots on frame ended up in the net as Embry-Riddle outshot the Wildcats 11-6 in the period.

Just 48 seconds into the second half the Eagles found themselves up 5-0 when an Elisson pass went over Couturier in the box before Petersson mopped up the ball with a shot into the lower-right corner of the goal, his third tally of the season.

Embry-Riddle controlled the possession throughout the next few minutes and in the 49th minute a Couturier header bounced off the crossbar before Vezza headed the rebound past De La Cruz for a six goal lead for the Eagles.

The final score of the night came off a poor defensive job by the Wildcats when Elisson carried the ball from nearly the half line all the way into the JWU penalty area and fired a shot that was untouched by the Johnson & Wales netminder.

Carlson and the ERAU defense nearly saw their clean sheet wiped out when the Wildcats appeared to score a goal late in the contest, but an offsides call kept the visitors off the scoreboard for the fifth straight season against Embry-Riddle.

Five different Eagles scored and four assisted on goals, led by two goals each from MacDonald and Vezza and a goal and two assists from Couturier and Petersson.

FINAL NAIA SEASON
The Eagles will close out their NAIA program history in the 2014 season as the Embry-Riddle Athletic Department will begin transitioning to NCAA II and the Sunshine State Conference. 2014-15 marks Candidacy Year One for the Embry-Riddle program, followed by Candidacy Year Two in 2015-16 and Provisional Membership in 2016-17.

If Embry-Riddle continues to meet all of the NCAA and SSC requirements, the Eagles will become full-fledged members of the NCAA II and the Sunshine State Conference in 2017-18.

EAGLES RANKED No. 9 IN PRESEASON POLL
Following a succesful 2013 season, the Eagles received preseason recognition from the NAIA Coaches' Poll as Embry-Riddle was slotted ninth in the preseason poll.

ERAU was also chosen to repeat as Sun Conference regular season champions by the league coaches, earning four first-place votes and 93 total points in the poll.

2014 Sun Conference Men's Soccer Preseason Poll
1. Embry-Riddle - 93 (4)
2. Thomas - 91 (4)
3. Northwood - 77 (2)
4. SCAD Savannah - 76 (1)
5. Florida Memorial - 58
6. St. Thomas - 56
7. Southeastern - 45
8. Webber International - 37
9. Warner - 32
10. Johnson & Wales - 24
11. Ave Maria - 16

Coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team

NUMBERS TO WATCH
5,342 - Career Minutes played by Nils Carlson, third-most all-time in program history.
233 - Wins in Head Coach Dave Gregson's 20-year tenure at Embry-Riddle.
102 - Veit Couturier's career point total. He trails all-time leader Jasmin Kadric by 36 points.
45 - Extra minutes the Eagles have played in their first three matches of 2014
22- All-time wins for Embry-Riddle against Northwood
1.0 - Goals per game for Couturier in his senior campaign

GREGSON REMAINS ONE OF NAIA'S ELITE
Dave Gregson will coach his 21st season at Embry-Riddle in 2014, and the Eagles' manager holds distinction amongst his NAIA peers. Gregson's 233 victories at ERAU rank 14th on the NAIA's active winningest coaching list, while his .649 winning percentage ranks 10th amongst those coaches.