by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
With temperatures in the '90s and high humidity, the UNM men's soccer team had to rely on its bench more than usual.
But it didn't matter because things worked out how the Lobos wanted.
"Because of the heat and the humidity, we had to get some guys more minutes," said head coach Jeremy Fishbein. "So there were players that couldn't go the whole game."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
In total, 17 players saw time in both Friday's 2-0 win against Southern Methodist University and Saturday's 2-1 overtime win against the University of Tulsa in the Tulsa, Okla., Golden Hurricane Classic.
Freshman and substitute forward Chris Wright made the most of his 27 minutes on Friday, scoring both of UNM's goals.
Junior defender Andrew Boyens notched the game-winner in the 97th minute Sunday against the Golden Hurricane when he headed a corner from junior Lars Loeseth past Tulsa goalkeeper Dominic Cervi.
Boyens said playing in those weather conditions wasn't something he would enjoy doing on a regular basis.
"The temperature was ridiculous," he said. "But we just played two quality teams and got two wins. It was like 100 degrees out there, or that's at least what it felt like."
The two wins boost the Lobos' record to 8-0 on the season and will undoubtedly allow them to hold on to their No. 1 ranking in the Soccer America Top-25 poll.
Jeff Rowland scored the other goal for UNM against Tulsa, bringing his team-leading total to eight goals on the season.
Despite the two wins, Boyens said the Lobos need to be crushing opponents with an iron fist, rather than squeaking by with one-goal wins.
"It's good for our confidence, but there's still a lot of work to be done," he said. "We are playing good soccer, but only at times. We really need to start putting up three or four goals a game. We really need to just start beating teams."
Loeseth said the offense needs to click more before the Lobos get into the postseason.
"We have been playing well and getting better, but we have the potential to be a lot better than we are," he said. "We are having a really good year so far, but we still want to work on getting more goals."
Although UNM heads into Mountain Pacific Sports Federation play undefeated, the team won't be taking any team for granted if Fishbein has his way.
"You can't overlook anybody. There's rivalries between teams in conference and we're going to be playing quality opponents. So we can't look past any teams," he said.
Boyens said the team is going to be careful in conference play this year. Last season, the Lobos went undefeated before dropping a game in conference play to Denver for their only loss of the regular season.
"We're going to be confident, but cautious," he said. "This is how we were last year. There's always going to be a time where you're going to have an off day."
