The college football edition of the Rio Grande Rivalry will take place on Saturday, but fans don't have to wait that long to get a peek at the Lobos and Aggies battling things out for pride and bragging rights and women's soccer takes the spotlight Friday night.
Things seem to be going in opposite directions for the two programs. The University of New Mexico women's soccer team has benefitted from its ability to win at home to even its season record, while New Mexico State has stumbled out of the gate and has enjoyed just one victory so far.
Fans of New Mexico and New Mexico State never seem to be at a loss for words about each other, and often times they don't agree on much. But there is one thing the teams agree on and the programs are even partnering together to prove it.
UNM head coach Heather Dyche said the teams will both don yellow jerseys or some part of the uniform in honor of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month as the schools seek to raise money for the cause, which will be donated to the New Mexico Child Cancer Center.
Dyche said "of all the funds raised for cancer, only four percent goes to children — that's not enough" and while it is great that so much money is raised to fight the disease and increase awareness, she seemed eager for the opportunity at this focused effort.
"Its going to be a great thing when you have two rival schools coming together, but its all in the best interest of the state," Dyche said. "Then we'll be rivals on the field and when the game is over, hopefully everybody will be happy."
New Mexico (3-3) has left happy in matches it has played at the UNM Soccer Complex, posting a perfect 3-0 record at home so far. The team was victorious over UTEP last Friday, scoring two early goals and holding off a late charge by the Miners to cement the win.
Dyche said she thought the Lobos played pretty well for about 70 minutes or so and then kind of lost the rhythm of the game the rest of the way. She said those are part of the learning experiences that come with such a young team and noted the women were strong enough to still walk away with a 2-1 win.
The Lobos have been an offensive juggernaut on their home pitch. The Sept. 7 matchup against UTEP was pretty tame, considering UNM scored four and five goals, respectively in its first two home wins — posting a shutout in one of them.
On the other side, New Mexico State is just 1-6 on the year, but four of those losses were by just one goal — and two of those were in overtime. So, despite the record, the Aggies have pretty much been in every match they've played this season. Dyche said the Aggies have been playing well and doing great things, acknowledging that it is only a matter of time before new NMSU head coach Rob Baarts and his team start to get results — she just hopes it isn't on Friday night.
New Mexico State lost to Abilene Christian on Sept. 2 by a score of 3-2 and was dealt a crushing blow when it fell to Boise State by the same margin in double overtime a week later.
The Lobos had been perfect against the Aggies in the series history, winning the first seven matches until New Mexico State put an end to the streak last season. There are a total of 26 student-athletes from the state of New Mexico on the collective rosters, and it was NMSU forward Audriana Chavez, a Cleveland High School product, that buried the game-winner in the final minute of last year's match to lift the Aggies to 1-0 victory.
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Dyche said that loss still kind of stings, but recognized Chavez for hitting a great goal and helped get the Aggies off to a good start. Aggie senior Aileen Galicia has been a scoring machine this season, accounting for more than one-third of NMSU's goal count — racking up four of the 11 team goals.
But New Mexico has some young strikers too that Lobo fans can keep an eye on to see if they are the one to rally their team this time around. Freshman forward Alesia Garcia has already tallied two game-winners in her short time as a Lobo, scoring on three of her four shots on goal this season. Junior midfielder Jessie Hix has also notched three goals so far.
A win by either squad could go a long way in building confidence for the team's as they move closer to conference play. The match is scheduled to take place on Friday, Sept. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
For those interested in making a contribution to the "Kickin' Childhood Cancer" campaign, the following gofundme account was created with a goal of raising $10,000 to benefit the Children's Cancer Fund of New Mexico.
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.
