The Lobo men's soccer team didn't look like they were doing much to handle Portland in the NCAA tournament game Tuesday night.
Then they turned it on like a tornado.
In the first half, it took a goal by Portland's Heath Pearce to get them going. The Pilots seemed to own the ball throughout the first 10 minutes. Then they scored their goal, and UNM snapped like angry wolves.
In just over two minutes, Jeff Rowland had tied it up, smashing the ball into the post and then knocking in his own rebound off a defender's head. UNM got off three more good shots in rapid succession.
"We were really shaky at first," said Rowland. "We were just anxious to get out there and start playing."
Despite the surge of strong play, their coach said postseason pressure may have gotten to his guys in the game's opening stretch.
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"We didn't play well there at first," Jeremy Fishbein said. "We weren't in the tournament last year, and it took us a little bit to get our confidence back and follow our own style of play."
After the first goal, the Lobos were able to settle in, he said.
"Once that first goal got, in it broke the ice for us, and we were able to get our confidence back," Fishbein said.
Rowland saw it the same way.
"We got scored on, but we knew we were gonna fight back," he said. "It kinda got the jitters out for us after that first goal. We didn't think for a second that we wouldn't come back and win the game."
And while that spurt in the first half was impressive for the Lobos, they saved their best play for the most opportune time. With less than 10 minutes left in a tie game, the team suddenly looked like it was ready for the European leagues.
A back-and-forth game became a blowout.
Patrick Grange added his two, and Lance Watson capped it off. The way the Lobos suddenly started shooting, there was little doubt they would pull out the win. They had 16 shots in the second half, compared to the five they scattered in the first.
Portland only got off two shots in the final period.
"I think they got a bit tired," Rowland said. "We were just taking it to them the whole second half. The last 20 minutes, we finally broke it down."
Rowland said it took the go-ahead goal by Grange to suddenly ignite the offense. Then things started to snowball.
"Finally Pat put one away, and we weren't going to stop," he said. "We were just going to keep going at them. Once you score a goal, you just feed off it. Our offense started clicking at that point."
