Oct. 12, 2003
Box Score
The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team lost its third-straight match today, falling, 6-3, to No. 20 UC Santa Barbara. The Lobos gave up the most goals in a game since a 7-3 loss at Air Force on October 19, 2001. The Lobos fall to 3-6-3 on the season, with all six losses coming against ranked teams, while UCSB improves to 8-1-1.
The Lobos dug a deep hole for themselves in the opening frame, falling behind 3-0 in the first period. UCSB scored three goals in just over seven minutes to close out the first half of action. Scores from Drew McAthy (23:22), Neil Jones (25:53), and Gene Deering (30:42) gave the Gauchos a big lead going into the locker room.
To make matters worse for UNM, starting forward Jeff Rowland was tagged with a red-card in the 37th minute, forcing UNM to play the rest of the game a man down. Rowland’s red-card was indicative of the rough play in the game, with UNM committing 22 fouls while UCSB was whistled for 19 of their own.
UCSB wasted no time in the second half when McAthy scored to make it 4-0 in the 48th minute of play. The Lobos could have rolled over and given up on such a big deficit, but UNM tried to mount a comeback in the last 40 minutes of play.
Freshman Robbie C’ deBaca scored his first goal in a Lobo uniform when he collected a defensive misplay in front of the Guacho net and put it home at the 48:06 mark. Sophomore Lance Watson came back two minutes later, firing in a pass from junior Eric Carlson to move the score to 4-2 in the 51st minute. It was Watson’s team-leading fifth goal of the season, but his first score in six games.
Jones scored again for UCSB in the 56th minute, giving the Gauchos a 5-2 edge. The Lobos got one more score from senior Stian Eriksen in the 65th minute of play off an assist from Watson. UCSB finished the scoring with their final goal from Jeff Murphy in the 70th minute.
The Lobos can take away one moral victory from this match. The 20th ranked Gauchos came into the game with the fourth ranked defense in the country. UNM was able put home three goals against a defense that had a 0.43 goals-against-average and had only given up four goals in all of 2003. The Lobos accomplished this while playing a man down due to Rowland’s red-card.
The Lobos return home to the UNM Soccer Complex to open conference play against UNLV on Saturday, October 18 at 7:00 p.m. It will be the first Mountain Pacific Sports Federation game for both teams this season. UNLV gave UNM their only conference loss in 2002 with a 2-0 win on November 10, 2002 in Las Vegas, Nev.