ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Senior Niko Hansen of The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team netted the game-winning goal with just six minutes left in regulation on Saturday night to lift the Lobos to a 1-0 exhibition win over the visiting Washington Huskies at the UNM Soccer Complex. The match marks the third straight shutout for the Lobos as they have not allowed a goal throughout exhibition play.
The goal marks Hansen’s fourth in the Lobos’ three exhibition shutouts to kick off the 2016 season as well as his second gamewinner.
Saturday’s match was the Lobos’ final exhibition matchup before they officially kick off the 2016 season on Thursday, August 26, at Indiana at 3 p.m.
“This was a game you wanted to have” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “We needed one real test to kind of see what we are about. I think we got that today and you start to see which guys you think can play at this level and who needs to keep growing and keep working. But for this time of the year, earlygoing, we’re pretty happy with it.”
“We could be a little bit sharper in the attacking third,” Fishbein added. ” I think we had some really good chances in that first half and we should have put a couple in the back of the net. Overall, we were solid defensively and I’m happy with the performance. We also had great goal to win it by Niko Hansen and this performance is something we can use to keep growing.”
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The Lobos threatened to take an early lead in the 12th minute of the contest. Senior Josh Goss took a corner from the right side and sent it in front of the box where redshirt senior Nick Rochowski was waiting to fire a shot from the close right corner of the box straight into the left post.
With 12 minutes left in the first half, it was the Huskies that threatened to score on a quick kick from the close left wing by Washington sophomore Quentin Pearson. Pearson fired toward the top of the net but junior keeper Jason Beaulieu punched the ball above the crossbar for an impressive Lobo save.
At the half, the Lobos held a commanding 11-4 shot advantage including four shots on goal compared to just one for Washington. Washington posted four corner kick opportunities in the first half while UNM had three.
Washington came out of the locker room dominating ball possession for the first 17 minutes of the second half before Goss took a shot that got the Lobo crowd excited. His shot went straight to keeper Auden Schilder however and the score remained deadlocked.
In the 69th minute, the Lobos had another close call when Hansen broke away from the Washington defense on the close right wing to go one-one-one with keeper Schilder, but a shot wide left kept the score 0-0.
After nearly an entire period of aggressive play and a few narrow misses, it was Hansen who scored the go-ahead goal for the Lobos with just six minutes left in regulation. Hansen dribbled past four defenders toward the box before firing high into the right corner for the Lobo victory.
After 90 minutes of regulation play, the Lobos outshot Washington 18-5 including seven shots on goal to just one for the Huskies. Washington did, however, maintain a 6-5 advantage in corner kick opportunities.
Following the 90-minutes of regulation play, the Lobos and the Huskies faced off for two more 20 minute periods in which neither team scored again.
The Lobos are set to return to action for their first regular-season game on Thursday, August 25 at Indiana at 3 p.m.