September 7, 2003
| Box Score |
The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team concluded the TLC Plumbing and Utilities Invitational with a 2-2 tie against Cincinnati this afternoon at the UNM Soccer Complex. The 19th ranked Lobos got goals from sophomores Ricky Francis and Lance Watson. New Mexico moves to 2-1-1 on the season while the Bearcats improve their record to 0-2-2.
This first half of action was a stalemate with New Mexico just outshooting Cincy, 19-15. The Lobos’ only real scoring opportunity came midway through the first frame when sophomore Brandon Moss hit the post on a header from a Stian Eriksen cross. Neither team was able to find the net in the first frame, however, Cincinnati did force Lobo keeper Andrew Weber to make four saves in the period.
The second half opened up in the same manner until the 60th minute when Francis fired a rocket from 20 yards out off an Eriksen pass. The shot found the top-left portion of the goal and gave the Lobos a 1-0 lead. “It was a good layoff by Stian,” stated Francis. “I just tried to do my best with it, keep it low an left.” The Lobos were not able to hold on to the lead long as the Bearcats came right back with a Justin Lewis goal in the 62nd minute to even the game at 1-1.
The game was delayed in the first half for about 15 minutes due to lightening in the area, but in the second half a storm halted play for about an hour. The game was resumed with just over 16 minutes left to play. It didn’t take long for the Lobos to find the net after the delay as the UNM struck again in the 75th minute. Watson beat his man after receiving a feed from sophomore Ben Ashwill and fired a shot past Bearcat keeper John Adams. “Ashwill gave me the ball from the left flank and I just turned to my left and beat the defender,” said Watson, who thought he had his second straight game-winning goal.
Unfortunately for the Lobos, Cincy came right back with another game-tying goal in the 85th minute when Josh Gardner launched a cross that Anders Cedergren put past Weber. “It’s disappointing anytime you have the lead on two occasions and can’t hold on, especially with five minutes left.” stated UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein. “We did a lot of real good things out there today. I’m happy with the way we played this weekend in terms of our ability to posses the ball. We just had a couple of mental lapses.”
Only four of this year’s Lobo players know what its like to leave the UNM Soccer Complex without a win as New Mexico extends its unbeaten streak at home to 12 games. The last time the Lobos were defeated at home was a 4-1 loss to UNLV on November 5, 2001. “This feels like a loss,” stated Eriksen, who was a member of the ’01 team. “We felt like we should have won the game.” The Lobos went unbeaten the program’s first 18 games at home from 1983-85 to set the all-time mark.
In the earlier game No. 15 Cal State Northridge (3-0-1) pounded IUPUI (0-4-0), 8-0. The Lobos travel to Dallas, Texas this weekend for matches against Tulsa (3-0-0) and No. 7 SMU (3-0-0). UNM faces off against the Golden Hurricane on Friday night at 5:00 p.m. (M.D.T.) and plays SMU on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. (M.D.T.). New Mexico will be without All-American defender Brandon Moss for the game against Tulsa. Moss received a red-card in the 96th minute of play when he took down a Bearcat player from behind. The Lobos’ next home game is against UC Irvine on Friday, September 19 in the second game of the Crescent Financial Solution Invitational.
All Tournament Team
Offensive MVP – Lance Watson – New Mexico
Defensive MVP – Edwin Miranda – Cal State Northridge
Stian Eriksen – New Mexico
Jeff Krause – New Mexico
Ricky Francis – New Mexico
Matt Roy – IUPUI
Louis Kisic – IUPUI
Charles Mitchell – Cal State Northridge
Willie Simms – Cal State Northridge
Josh Gardner – Cincinnati
Justin Dobbs – Cincinnati