The University of New Mexico women's soccer team remained perfect at home, dispatching of the Colorado State Rams in a 3-0 shutout at the UNM Soccer Complex on Friday night.
New Mexico (5-3, 1-0 MW) was aggressive from the outset and applied early pressure on the opposing goalkeeper. CSU junior Hunter Peifer entered Friday night with a 79 percent save rate, giving up just five goals this season en route to putting up two clean sheets.
But the Lobo attack put Peifer on her heels — registering four shots and two corner kicks within the first nine minutes. Freshman Alesia Garcia narrowly missed opening the scoring with an attempt that hit the crossbar, but sophomore midfielder Cami Floth broke through about a minute later with a goal at the 8:54 mark to make it 1-0 in favor of the Lobos.
And that was all the support UNM goalies Emily Johnson and Malia Vanisi needed, though New Mexico continued to add to that total as the match progressed.
"Any time you get a conference win, it's a good thing regardless of how it looks," UNM head coach Heather Dyche said in a release. "But the total performance tonight, I was really pleased to be honest. It was a pretty dominating performance by our team."
New Mexico didn't pierce the net for the rest of the first half, but outshot the Rams 8-3 in the opening period. Johnson, who got the start in the net, recorded a save on the Rams' only shot on goal in the first 45 minutes.
Although Vanisi eventually relieved her, the duties were not split down the middle — which had been the case until Friday's match. Johnson collected two more saves in the second half and Vanisi registered one in just over nine minutes of action.
Colorado State probably felt fortunate to be down just 1-0 at the half and very much in the match, but suffered a disastrous few minutes early in the second half that proved to be insurmountable.
Garcia put a header into the net in the 57th minute, assisted by teammate Jennifer Muñoz to make it 2-0. It was the freshman's fifth goal of the season and her third in the past four matches.
Shortly thereafter, the Rams failed to successfully clear the ball and Muñoz made them pay — blasting the ball past Peifer for the Lobos's third goal at 59:02 into the match. It was the first goal of the season for the senior captain, who targeted the upper left corner for the final score of the match.
Peifer was eventually lifted from the match in favor of Gabi McDonald for the final 19:51 of the game. UNM did not fire a shot on goal during that timeframe as the Lobos killed the rest of the clock to get the 3-0 shutout in the books.
New Mexico will remain home to finish off the final match of a four-game home stand as the Lobos host Wyoming on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. with a chance to notch another Mountain West win.
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.
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