Men’s soccer falls on the road at UAB, 4-0
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Three second-half goals by UAB helped the Blazers to a 4-0 win over the University of New Mexico men’s soccer team on Saturday night at the BBVA Compass Field in Birmingham.
“There is no excuse for tonight’s outcome. It was an extremely disappointing performance in that we gave up an early bad goal, then got a hold of the game, then made a huge error on the second goal and it went from there,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “We made three mistakes you just can’t make. These are good players making functional and technical mistakes. I take responsibility for the current team environment and the situation these guys have been put in – it’s on me.”
The Blazers (3-6-2, 1-3-1 C-USA) scored the first goal of the game in the 26th minute after gaining possession of the ball on the UNM half of the field. Controlling the takeaway was Aidan O’Hara, who then passed the ball to Tarnue Tyler. Tyler then did a give-and-go back to O’Hara who was centered up on goal and shot it passed UNM keeper Ford Parker.
The Lobos (3-9-0, 1-3-0 C-USA) were able to recover from that initial goal through the remainder of the half and had their best goal-scoring opportunity in the waning minutes of the half as Nick Barreiro had a free kick just outside the box following a yellow card by the Blazers’ Edgard Gamboa. After a carom, the shot went on goal and UAB keeper James Teal made the save.
That would be the lone save Teal would have to make in the game.
UAB’s second goal of the game came early in the second half as O’Hara netted his second of the game. On that goal in the 49th minute, O’Hara cleaned up an initial shot taken by DeAndre Robinson that was deflected off of Parker and right to O’Hara.
Just under 10 minutes later, UAB put the game further out of reach as they took advantage of misplay by UNM near midfield that resulted in a breakaway goal for Blake White.
The fourth and final goal for the Blazers came late in the half and was scored by Louis-Etienn Nzonza, who found the back of the net by being in the right place at the right time after Joseph Buete’s initial shot hit the right post and bounced right to Nzonza, who put away the open-goal chance.
The Lobos will now return home for a Conference USA match against South Carolina. That game is slated to begin at 6 p.m. on Saturday, October 13 at the UNM Soccer Complex.