Nov. 2, 2003
Box Score
The Lobo men’s soccer team clinched a spot in the 2003 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation postseason tournament with a 3-0 win over Sacramento State Sunday at the UNM Soccer Complex. Sophomore Ben Ashwill scored two goals and sophomore Lance Watson added another to give New Mexico (6-8-3, 3-2-0 MPSF) the win in their last home game of the season.
The Lobos started slow in the game and had trouble getting their offense going. To make matters worse, two starters had to come out of the game in the first half. Junior Jeff Krause took a shot to the ankle while senior Stian Eriksen took another one to the face, putting both players on the sideline for the rest of the game.
UNM finally got fired up in the 31st minute of play, helped out the by 1,518 fans in attendance. Watson collected the ball near midfield and sent a pass into Ashwill. Instead of controlling the ball he jumped over it and let it pass through to sophomore Jeff Rowland. Rowland then sent a cross right back to Watson who had made his way into the middle of the box. Watson’s shot found its way past Hornet keeper Jeff Gibson for the 1-0 lead. It was Watson’s team-leading sixth goal of the season and the third assist on the year for Rowland.
UNM kept the pressure on and five minutes later found the back of the net again. Junior Danny Bills sent a long free kick down the left side to sophomore Matt Wootton. Wootton took the ball to the baseline and served a perfect cross for Ashwill who put it past the Hornet defense for a 2-0 lead.
Ashwill added another goal in the 59th minute for the third multi-goal game of his career. This time it was sophomore Erik Bagwell who sent a cross in from the right side that the Hornet goalie couldn’t handle. “(Junior) Pat (Grange) got in the way of the keeper and it came right to me,” stated Ashwill. “I just headed it in.”
“We started out asleep before we finally got settled down in the first half,” stated second year head coach Jeremy Fishbein. “We created some good opportunities and scored some great goals and got good play out of our forwards. It was a good, solid performance. It was nice to hold a lead and keep attacking number.”
The Lobos are now 13-1-2 under Fishbein at the UNM Soccer Complex in two seasons of play. UNM averaged 1,700 fans over seven games this season, which would have been good enough for sixth in the nation last season.
The Lobos defense had another strong game, led by the backline of sophomores Wootton, Casey Thompson, Brandon Moss, and Bills. Junior keeper Andrew Weber made five saves on the day and recorded the fifth shutout of the season and the 16th of his career. He now holds the all-time mark for shutouts at UNM. The win was the 31st of his career, putting him in a tie for second place all-time at UNM with Paul Branch (85).
The Lobos will now travel to San Diego State (7-4-3, 1-0-2 MPSF) for the final regular season game. A win or tie against San Diego State will ensure the Lobos a bye in the first round of the MPSF Tournament in Sacramento, Calif. On November 13-16, 2003.