The University of New Mexico men's soccer team found itself in an early hole — one that was too deep for the Lobos to climb out of as they dropped the conference opener at home 2-1 to the Old Dominion Monarchs.
New Mexico (2-5, 0-1 C-USA) lost its third straight match and seemed to be caught off guard as the visiting team landed a quick point when senior forward Max Wilschrey went top shelf just 1:51 into the match for the early 1-0 lead.
The goal scored seemed to stun the crowd and was a rough start for UNM goalkeeper Alex Fetterly, who got his first start for the Lobos on Saturday evening.
Fetterly had seemed to settle down despite being under a constant barrage of pressure from the Monarchs. Over the next several minutes, he recorded a trio of saves and saw an ODU header narrowly miss the mark, bouncing off the post.
Then New Mexico went on the offensive, notching a couple of shots on goal with attempts off the head of senior midfielders Antoine Vial and Matt Dorsey, but Monarch keeper Mertcan Akar was on the spot to collect the save both times.
Minutes later, Old Dominion tallied its second goal of the match — making Fetterly pay for taking a gamble to leave the net vulnerable. Sebastien Hauret set up Wilschrey for the finish and the senior notched his eighth goal of the season to make it a 2-0 bulge over New Mexico in the 20th minute.
UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein acknowledged the calculated risk Fetterly took, but praised the play of the freshman overall as the goalkeeper put the clamps on the Monarchs the rest of the way.
"Fetterly made a daring decision to come out on that second goal and missed it, but outside of that he had a fantastic game," Fishbein said in a release.
UNM freshman Omar Grey was inserted into the match about midway through the first half and made an almost immediate impact. He halved the deficit by chasing down a pass by junior defender Tom Smart, who leads the team with five assists, and beating the goalie to make it 2-1.
Scoring chances for the remainder of the first 45 minute period were limited and the score remained unchanged heading into halftime.
Offense seemed to come at even more of premium in the second half. Despite the Lobos' urgency to find the tying goal and the Monarchs' desire to create even more separation, there were only three shots on goal the rest of the way.
New Mexico's best looks probably came from sophomore forward Nick Taylor. He fired a potential game-tying shot that glanced off the crossbar at the 66:10 mark and saw another look in the waning minutes of the game, but was denied by Akar in the 87th minute.
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Akar logged four saves on the night and benefitted from his team's aggressiveness. Old Dominion outshot New Mexico 13-10, but registered nine shots on goal compared to five from the Lobos. That recipe helped lead the Monarchs to the 2-1 victory.
With the win, Old Dominion, which won the C-USA Conference Tournament last year, improved to 2-0 in conference play and 4-1-1 overall this season.
Fishbein said the Lobos have shown flashes of what it is capable of, but have struggled to sustain it for an entire match, But he seemed hopeful the group will continue to mature and find their way.
"On one hand, it's incredibly frustrating, but we have these incredible moments — and it's exciting that this team can keep getting better, these young guys can keep getting better," the head coach said. "This is a good group and I believe in this team."
While losing a conference game is tough, only four C-USA teams remain unbeaten in the league. So UNM has plenty of time to right the ship and climb back up the standings.
New Mexico will have some time to figure out how to put together the 90-minute effort it needs to get back on track. The Lobos' next match takes play on Saturday, Sept. 22 on the road against Florida Atlantic at 5 p.m.
Robert Maler is the sports editor for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers basketball and baseball and contributes content for various other sports as well. He can be contacted at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Robert_Maler.
