Late Penalty Overcomes Lobos at No. 11 Washington
SEATTLE, WASH. — Despite exciting final minutes in its 2017 season opener, the No. 20 University of New Mexico men’s soccer team fell to No. 11 Washington by a narrow, one-goal margin, 2-1, on Friday night on the road. The lone Lobo to find the back of the net was senior Luke Lawrence, who landed on target in the 86th minute to reduce the deficit to one with time running out.
“This was a disappointing game to lose,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “I think we were well prepared and I thought the team spirit was great. We knew what to expect but we didn’t play with the composure we needed, especially in the first half.”
Throughout the first half, it was the Huskies that dominated their attacking third. The Washington offense kicked off the match with a quick pair of shots to threaten but the UNM defense responded and held the Huskies scoreless through the first 34 minutes. At the 12-minute mark, senior keeper Jason Beaulieu made an outstanding save when Washington’s Bwana Handwalla, 2016 Pac-12 Freshman of the Year, launched a close-range shot from dead center.
Washington went up by one 10 minutes before the end of the first half when sophomore Elijah Rice fired from the right side of the box into the left side of the net. A swift pass from the outside made its way to a Washington attacker, who faked and turned out, allowing the pass to advance to Rice. Rice turned quickly and scored before Beaulieu had a chance to get in firm position for the save, 1-0 Washington.
At the half, UW led UNM 5-1 in shots and 2-0 in shots on goal.
“We went into the half down a goal and I think we really got the better of the second half,” Fishbein said. “We gave up a disappointing second goal and at that point we made a change. We went three in the back (instead of four), got a goal back and kept pushing. We had some serious chances to tie the game but couldn’t quite make it.
“Overall, there were a lot of positives for our season opener, but at the end of the day, it wasn’t the result we were looking for.”
The Lobos came out of the locker room with fire in the second half, racking up seven shots to just three for the Huskies throughout the period.
The UNM offense threatened when juniors Aaron Herrera and Matt Dorsey sailed a pair of headers over the crossbar just less than four minutes apart (50:05, 53:50), putting on the Lobo pressure.
Herrera had another chance 10 minutes later when he fired from outside the box on the close right wing. The junior lined up after a careful UNM attack but was blocked by a Washington defender to remain down 1-0.
The Lobos continued their attack but when Washington began to reclaim the momentum, a Lobo foul just inside the box caused trouble for UNM. With less than four minutes to play, UW’s Scott Menzies found the bottom left corner of the net on a penalty kick to make it 2-0 Huskies.
New Mexico refused to give up however, and just 50 seconds later Lawrence picked up a long ball from Herrera in the box and punched it in to cut the deficit to just one, 2-1, with just over three minutes left.
UNM posted back-to-back corner kicks in attempt to tie the match, but neither were successful. The Huskies’ defense collected the ball and sent it to the other side of the field to run out the clock for the win.
Overall, the teams tied with eight shots apiece while New Mexico registered eight corner kicks to just three for Washington. UW posted 11 fouls to eight for the Lobos and Beaulieu takes his first loss of the season after collecting one save.
Leading the offense for UNM was Herrera who registered three shots. Handwalla also posted three shots to lead the Huskies’ offense.
The Lobos will remain in Seattle to take on Seattle University on Sunday, August 27 at 7 p.m. MT. Following the pair of away matches, the Lobos will return to Albuquerque to host their home opener on Friday, Sept. 1 to take on UNLV at 7 p.m. MT at the UNM Soccer Complex.