ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.— The second-to-last line of the New Mexico fight song says, “fighting ever, yielding never,” and the Lobos personified that in the 3-2 Mountain West opener victory against Colorado College on Thursday night.
UNM scored three goals in the second half, tying the match in the 63rd minute and again in the 66th minute behind goals from Alèjandra Puerto before taking its only lead of the match in the 89th minute off of a header from Gabby Beaudry. Allie Anderson tallied a career-high two assists in the match with Celina Frentz accounting for an assist on the first goal for her third of the season.
“This group, we got in a lot of those games last year and we tended to implode instead of fighting through it, and I know that that is something they’ve been working really hard on in all of our previous games,” assessed Head Coach Heather Dyche. “To see them find that grind and stay tuned in, and not get negative, and every conference game is going to be a good game, so for them to find that and pull out a win is just huge tonight.”
After a Lobo goal was overturned by VAR in the seventh minute, CC took a 1-0 lead in the 10th minute, which held at the break.
“We talked about it at halftime. We played a good first half, we were just losing 1-0. The message was to make sure we stayed tuned into us and focus on how we were performing and not let the result become an emotional thing. I thought we were much better in that second half.”
The Lobos responded, led by a senior in Puerto and a freshman in Frentz, who happened to be in the right spot at the right time. A cross into the box from Puerto resulted in a deflected shot by Nicole Anderson in the 57th minute, which led to a corner kick and ultimately the first Lobo goal.
Alysa Whelchel took the corner, and while the initial pass to A. Anderson was unable to be brought in, Macie Harris was there to retain possession for the Lobos. Harris’ shot was blocked but ricocheted to Frenz, who kicked it ahead to an unmarked Puerto on the left side. Puerto turned, took a dribble and poked it bottom right and past the approaching Tiger keeper for the goal.
The Tigers regained the lead at 62:09, but the Lobos answered less than three minutes later (65:06) with Puerto again sparking the Lobos.
A. Anderson struck the ball close to midfield near the Lobo bench side, floating it into the middle of the field just outside of the 18-yard box. While a Tiger got a piece of the ball, it fortuitously bounced right to Puerto, who found space amongst two CC defenders and shot it past the diving keeper for her second goal of the night and her sixth of the season. It was her second multi-goal match of the season.
The score held as UNM goalkeeper Alyson Campbell recorded consecutive saves in the 69th and 70th minutes and a shot by A. Anderson in the 79th minute was inches wide left of the top corner post.
A corner kick set up by a Frentz cross that was kicked out of play by the Tigers in the 88th minute provided the final goal. Frentz found an open A. Anderson outside the top right corner of the box, with the Lobo able to gather it and chip it to Beaudry, who headed it top right and into the net at 88:10 on the clock. For Anderson, it was her second assist of the night, third of the season, and for Beaudry, her third goal of the season and second game-winner.
With the win, the Lobos move to 5-2-2 on the season, 1-0-0 in the Mountain West and are now 16-6-5 in MW openers and 10-2-1 when opening conference at home. Under Dyche, the Lobos are 6-3-2 in conference openers and 4-2-0 when opening conference at home.
UNM heads on the road for its next two MW matches, set to face San José State on Oct. 2 and Fresno State on Oct. 5 before returning home to host GCU on Oct. 9 at 7 p.m.