The season opener for Tennessee Wesleyan College pitted the Bulldogs against the current number nine ranked team in the nation Southern Polytechnic State University. On paper, the game looked to be an extremely tough start with Southern Poly reaching the second round of the NAIA National Tournament last season and has started this season where they left off last with a draw against previous National Champion's Bethel University and an 11-0 win over Atlanta Christian.   

The game started brightly for TWC, they controlled possession of the ball and only looked threatened on the counter attack by a very defensive minded Southern Poly. Chances in the first half were few and far between, TWC's John Carrier had a speculative effort from 30 yards excellently and acrobatically saved by Southern Poly's goalkeeper. The best chance of the half came to Southern Poly, when a straight ball through the center of TWC's defense, who was caught napping, lead Nigerian born Emeke Maduka to find himself one on one with TWC's freshman goalkeeper Zack Plaice. Plaice stood his ground and pulled off an outstanding save to keep the score at 0-0 going into the half.

The second half started similar to the first with Southern Poly sitting back soaking up TWC's pressure and counter attacking with speed. Again goal scoring opportunities were at a premium and the deciding moment of the game came on the 68^th minute when TWC's right back Dusty McClanahan put in a slide tackle close to the half way line and the referee showed him his second yellow card and subsequently a red. It was a soft dismissal in a game that had much worse challenges that went unpunished. TWC was on the back foot from this point onwards, changes had to be made and with the work that the TWC team had put into the game, cramps were becoming a factor for some of the TWC players.