by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
Two goals in the first home tournament of the season mean a lot to Cody Hanna.
Especially since they happened to be two game-winning goals for the UNM men's soccer team in a 1-0 win against James Madison University on Sunday and a 3-2 win against Wisconsin on Friday.
And it's not like the fifth-year senior has seen that much playing time before this year either.
"It's finally nice to be a part of a winning program," Hanna said. "I've been in two winning programs, but I've never been involved as much as this before. When you've got great players like Lance (Watson), (Jeff) Rowland and (Brandon) Moss, it's easy to be in the right place at the right time, and that's essentially what I was doing this weekend."
Hanna started his college career at Southern Methodist University, getting on the field for one game - an 8-1 win against Texas Christian University - before transferring to UNM two years ago. After sitting out 2003 as a redshirt, Hanna appeared in nine games last season. He has started four out of five games for the Lobos this year.
The game-winner on Friday night came in the 64th minute when Hanna collected a ball 25 yards out and sent a rocket off the left crossbar and past Badger goalkeeper Jake Settle to seal a UNM victory.
Sunday's goal came in the 75th minute after fellow senior Lance Watson put in a low cross that found its way to Hanna's feet eight yards from the goal.
Hanna one-timed a shot over the head of James Madison's goalkeeper Kevin Trapp to bring the Lobos' record to 5-0 on the season.
UNM is ranked No. 2 in the country by three out of four national polls.
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The Lobos spent most of the first half against the Dukes trying to muster a shot on goal. That shot finally came seven minutes before halftime when Watson hit a 20-yard shot right into the hands of Trapp.
UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said it was tough to conjure any offensive magic against James Madison, because the Dukes put most of their team behind the ball in an attempt to keep a 0-0 tie with a top-ranked team.
It's something the Lobos are just going to have to get used to, he said.
"That's how teams are going to play against us," Fishbein said. "That's how I would have played if I were them."
Watson said he wasn't sweating a 0-0 tie, even though the Dukes packed themselves like sardines in the penalty box.
"At no point were we ever worried about scoring goals," he said. "We knew they would come. We've got too many offensive weapons to be shut out in a game."
The Lobos haven't lost a game at home since Oct. 13, 2003, when the University of Nevada-Las Vegas beat UNM 2-0. That was also the only home loss in Fishbein's four-year tenure at UNM.
Watson said squeaking by with two home wins against unranked teams is just fine with him, even if the Lobos keep fans on the edge of their seat until the end of the game.
"We're always glad to win at home," Watson said. "We try to put on a show for the fans, but maybe we just make it a little too exciting for them sometimes."
