Men's Soccer Claims Home Opener Shutout; Fishbein Tallies 200th Win
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team (1-2-0) opened its 2017 home slate with a 3-0 shutout victory over the visiting Rebels of UNLV (1-2-0) on Friday night at the UNM Soccer Complex. The victory extends the Lobos’ unbeaten home streak to 12 games and also moves senior goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu into third in UNM history in career shutouts (18).
Among the night’s milestones, head coach Jeremy Fishbein also reached one of his own. With the win, Fishbein tallied his 200th victory since being the head coach at UNM. He took over at the helm of the Lobos in 2002 and boasts an overall career record of 295-135-46.
Senior Sam Gleadle kicked off the scoring with his first goal of the season in the 18th minute after the Rebels’ Danny Musovski was ejected from the game on a red card in the 16th, leaving UNLV a man down the remainder of the game. Gleadle received a pass through the back line from redshirt sophomore Devin Boyce, beat UNLV keeper Enrique Adame on the left side of the box and fired into the right side of the net to put the Lobos up 1-0 early.
The UNM offense didn’t stop there as freshman Nick Taylor netted his first career goal at the 37:54 mark. Taylor fired from nearly 30 yards on the right wing directly into the top center of the net to make it 2-0 Lobos leading into the half. Junior Aaron Herrera notched the assist.
Despite the 2-0 score, the teams remained fairly even statistically at the half. UNLV led UNM in shots 6-5 while New Mexico had registered the only corner kick of the half. Both squads had posted a pair of saves and three fouls in the first half.
The Lobos were more offensively dominant in the second period, posting seven shots to just four for UNLV to lead 12-10 on the day. The Lobos also posted three corners to just one for the Rebels to make it 4-1 for the game.
UNM increased the lead to three when junior transfer Antoine Vial scored his first goal of the season on a penalty kick in the 79th minute. Vial was fouled in the right side of the box on a UNLV tackle.
Beaulieu earns his first win of the season to improve to 1-2-0 while Adame takes his second loss of 2017 and is also 1-2-0. Both keepers registered four saves on the day. Offensively, the Lobos registered seven shots on goal to just four for UNLV. The two squads, currently receiving votes in the national polls, combined for 15 fouls in the intense matchup.
“It was good to get the first win of the season and it was great to score a couple of nice goals,” Fishbien said. “However, I’m not completely thrilled with the overall performance. It was an emotional game and we committed a lot of errors that, if you want to beat a good team, you can’t make. We showed a lack of discipline that we need to address.”
The Lobos are set to return to action Monday, Sept. 4 at Marquette. Kick off is scheduled for 6:05 p.m. MT. Following the road match, the Lobos will return home to host CSUN, Denver and UC Irvine in the Grange and Ashwill Invitational from Friday, Sept. 8 through Sunday, Sept. 10.