The University of New Mexico Men’s Soccer Team (4-3-0) will travel to South Carolina on Friday to take on the Gamecocks in the first road game of the Conference-USA slate.
South Carolina is coming off of a 1-0 win over No. 13 Furman last Tuesday, handing Furman their first loss of the season. The Gamecocks are 3-3-0 and 0-2 in conference play, losing to both Marshall on the road and in overtime to FAU. They also lead the C-USA in home attendance and play their matches at a stadium unofficially known as the Graveyard, something Lobos coach Jeremy Fishbein mentioned in his press conference.
“(It’s an) incredible soccer environment there: their stadium, their fans, it’s going to be fun,” Fishbein said. “We’re ready.”
The Lobos are coming off a 1-0 loss to Kentucky at home in their C-USA home opener. The loss broke a 14-game streak for the Lobos, who hadn’t lost at home since Oct. 27, 2015.
Despite the loss, Fishbein spoke highly of his team’s performance, saying, “I thought for the first 44 and a half minutes, we played some of the best soccer we’ve played in four or five years, but we didn’t find the net, and that’s the name of the game.”
The Gamecocks are lead by Mark Berson, who is in his 40th season at the school and boasts an impressive resume as the coach with the highest ratio of wins in Division I soccer. Fishbein had high praises for Berson’s squad.
“It’s a really talented team, I’m not sure in terms of their organization, they’ve had a lot of changes within their coaching staff,” Fishbein said. “There’s a lot of pressure to play at that institution; it’ll be interesting to see how they handle that.”
Offensively, the team is lead by freshman Justin Sukow and sophomore Luca Mayr, who have each tallied three goals. Mayr has added three assists to that tally for a total of nine points, while Sukow has added one assist for seven points. The team only returns four starters from last year’s squad, which reached the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
In addition, third-year starter William Pyle, the team’s goalkeeper, is back to anchor the back line. So far this season, he’s made 25 saves and allowed ten goals, recording two shutouts along the way.
The South Carolina match will be held this Friday at 5 p.m. and be broadcast live on Watch ESPN. This is the start of a three-game road trip for the Lobos, who don’t play at home again until Oct. 7, something that Fishbein thinks will help with the team’s focus due to their smaller squad size as well as being away from home.
The Lobos will be looking to build off a series of strong performances that began with the win over Marquette on Sept. 4. If the team can find a way to put the ball in the back of the net and continue to play the way they have been lately, they could be in a good position to come out with a positive result on Friday night.
Following the game with South Carolina, the Lobos will travel to West Virginia to take on Marshall on Sept. 30 in another conference matchup.
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Cameron Goeldner is a freelance sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers men’s soccer, but also contributes content for baseball, basketball, football and track and field. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @goeldfinger.
