Sept. 5, 2008
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Friday: Lobos 3, Michigan State 2
Sunday: Lobos vs. Louisville, 4 p.m.; Michigan State vs. UC Davis, 11 a.m.
By Richard Stevens – Senior Writer/GoLobos.com
The message that flashed in Lobos coach Jeremy Fishbein’s eyes did not reflect the message on the scoreboard that read Lobos 3, Michigan State 2.
Fishbein was steamed even though his Lobos won their first game in the TLC Plumbing & Utililty Invitational held Friday night at the UNM Soccer Complex.
“I think coach was more mad tonight after we won than he was after we had lost,” said P.J. Wilson, a University of New Mexico forward, who scored one of UNM’s three goals.
“We know why he was mad. I think we thought we had it in the bag. We get up two goals and we thought we had them. We laid off in the second half and they came out hard. It looked like we didn’t expect that.”
The Spartans struck first on a goal by Louis Stephens at the 8:19 mark of the first half. The quick strike quieted the crowd of 2,012.
Then boom, boom, boom = the Lobos (2-0-1) notched a 3-1 lead on goals by Jack Smithson (11:34), Wilson (26:41) and Michael Green (28:40). The Lobos never reached the net again.
“We give up a sloppy early goal for the second game in a row,” said Fishbein. “Then we play great, great, for 25 minutes and then we get complacent and let a team get right back into the game. That shouldn’t happen.
“That’s overconfidence because I’m not going to say it’s immaturiy.”
The Spartans climbed within a goal of UNM when Michigan State’s Doug DeMartin knived through the heart of the Lobos’ defense and pushed the ball to the right of UNM’s goalie Eric Staver.
The Lobos had a few chances after that. So, did the Spartans. Michigan State got the last opportunity when UNM’s Staver misplayed a ball bouncing toward him, allowing the Spartans a corner kick with about 1:32 left to play.
The corner kick came down in front of the UNM net and a solid Spartans’ header went wide.
“That was scary,” said Wilson. “That shouldn’t have happened.”
The Lobos ended the game with seven shots-on-goal to five for Michigan State. Staver had three saves and Michigan State goalie Jeremy Clark had four saves. The Lobos and Michigan State had seven corner shots apiece.
Fishbein had said one team goal for this game was to eliminate all the small physical and mental mistakes.
“That’s a concern,” he said of his 21st-ranked Lobos’ mental errors. “When you get up two goals, you need to lock a game down and we didn’t do it.
“That (late corner kick by Michigan State) was another mental error. If we want to be a good team, we can’t make the mistakes we made tonight. I don’t know if Michigan State is a great team, but they are a good team. If that was a really good team, we get punished (tonight).”
The TLC tourney continues Sunday with UNM playing Louisville at 4 p.m. Michigan State and UC Davis play at 11 a.m.
Editor’s note: Richard Stevens is a former Associate Sports Editor and sports columnist for The Albuquerque Tribune. You can reach him at rstevens50@comcast.net. Previous articles are available at The Richard Stevens Corner.