Nov. 6, 2005
The No. 2 University of New Mexico men’s soccer team stumbled against Sacramento State today, tying the Hornets 1-1 in Sacramento, Calif. The Lobos (13-1-2, 5-1-2 MPSF) remain in second place in the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation race with 17 points and trail first place San Jose State (10-5-3, 6-2-1 MPSF) who has 19 points in league play. Teams are awarded three points for a win and one point for a tie in conference action. The MPSF regular season champion will earn the conference’s automatic bid to the 2005 NCAA Tournament.
New Mexico got on the board early in the game when senior Lance Watson took a corner kick in the 16th minute. His cross found junior Lars Loeseth who banged home his second goal of the year and gave UNM and early 1-0 lead. It was Watson’s eighth helper of the season, tying a season-mark he set in his freshman year. He is now tied with Steve Kraemer (1994-97) for second on UNM’s all-time assist list with 21 in his career. John Renken (1984-87) holds the Lobo record with 29 career assists.
Sacramento State came back in the 29th minute to even the score on a goal by Eliot Ricks-Chambers. Ryan Rhoads and Marco Ramirez were credited with assists on the play, evening the score at 1-1.
Despite creating nine corner kicks compared to the Hornet’s four, the Lobos were outshot, 17-13, for just the third time this season. Sacramento State also forced Lobo keeper Mike Graczyk to make seven saves compared to six by Hornet keeper Matt McDougal.
“It was a disappointing result for us today,” stated UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein. “We expended a lot of energy in our game against San Jose State on Friday night and Sacramento State came to play today. We made some mistakes and were without one of our starting defenders, but were lucky the result wasn’t worse than a tie.”
Senior defender Josh Brown, who had started all 15 of the previous games in the Lobo backline, was forced to sit out today’s match after picking up his fifth yellow card against the Spartans on Friday. Freshman Mike Giffin started in his place as at left back and senior Matt Wootton moved over to center back.
The Lobos still control their own destiny in the conference race, thanks to San Jose State’s 2-2 tie against UNLV today. New Mexico can clinch the MPSF title with two wins next weekend. The Spartans only have one game next weekend against Sacramento State on Sunday, Nov. 13, at 2:00 p.m. (M.S.T.) in Sacramento Calif. New Mexico holds the tiebreaker over SJSU with 19 goals in conference play, compared to 17 by the Spartans. UNM faces Denver on Friday, Nov. 11, at 7:00 p.m. (M.S.T.) at the UNM Soccer Complex. Senior Day is set for Sunday, Nov. 13, at 1:00 p.m. (M.S.T.) against Air Force, also at the UNM Soccer Complex.