Killman's two goals lead Lobos past Houston, 3-2
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico women’s soccer team rallied from an early 1-0 deficit against Houston thanks to the first two career goals from Jenna Killman and a hard-charging header for a goal by Jessie Hix as the Lobos defeated the Cougars 3-2 on Friday night at UNM Soccer Complex.
After falling behind in the 22nd minute on a goal by Houston’s Margo McEntire, the Lobos evened things up just before the break as Killman found a loose ball in the box and used her left foot to guide it into the bottom-right corner of the goal to make it 1-1.
UNM (4-3) took the lead for good on Houston (3-3-1) in the 64th minute when Jessica Nelson sent a firm, well-placed corner to the back post where Jessie Hix came flying in to head it into the back of the netl to give the Lobos a 2-1 advantage.
Killman put the Lobos on the board again less than two minutes later as a beautifully played ball by Jill Olguin found Killman’s feet and the Olympia, Washington, native put it home to give the Lobos a 3-1 advantage.
“Honestly, the team put me in a real good position to score and I couldn’t have done it without them,” Killman said. “In training we’ve been just pushing each other harder and harder.”
Houston didn’t go away, however, as Selena Peters scored in the 72nd minute to cut the UNM lead to 3-2.
But the Lobos were able to fight off the Cougars over the final 18 minutes to secure the victory.
“The crazy thing about soccer is it’s such an ebb-and-flow game,” UNM coach Heather Dyche said. “Even when we were up 3-1, I felt like it was still pretty back and forth. It certainly feels better being up 3-1 than 2-1, but it would take probably being up four or five goals before I could take a deep breath. … (Houston) did a great job. They pushed four or five forwards at the end of the game and that’s hard to defend.”
The Lobos outshot the Cougars 21-13 (UNM had 10 shots on goal compared to five for Houston) in the contest with Hix leading the way with four shots (three on goal) while Eileen Zendejas and Claire Lynch each had three shots.
UNM also had more corner kicks (13-6) and fouls (6-3) than Houston on the night.
The win marks the seventh-consecutive game the Lobos have had a one-goal margin in the final score. They entered this weekend as one of 11 teams in the country having all their games decided by one goal.
UNM returns to action 1 p.m. Sunday when it plays its final non-conference contest of the regular season against Northern Arizona at UNM Soccer Complex.