by Riley Bauling
Daily Lobo
Senior defender Matt Wootton said he knows what teams are thinking when they play the No. 1-ranked UNM men's soccer team.
After all, he was in their shoes last year when the Lobos were getting ready to play then-No. 1-ranked Indiana University.
"Everyone just wants to beat us," Wootton said. "I remember playing Indiana last year and how fired up we were to play that game. That's what it's like for other teams that play us."
Get content from The Daily Lobo delivered to your inbox
Senior center midfielder Brandon Moss said opposing teams probably have the Lobos circled, highlighted and underlined on their schedules.
"Last year playing Indiana, that was the game we were looking forward to all season," he said. "We were always looking at the thought of taking down the national champs. Other teams are doing their thing and getting through the games before us, but every team wants to be the team to knock us out."
UNM beat Indiana 1-0 in overtime last year, partly because the Lobos were so pumped up to play the defending national champs, Wootton said.
If close games are any testament to UNM's opponents overachieving this year, Moss and Wootton must be dead on.
The Lobos haven't beaten any team by more than two goals this season, and in their last two Mountain Pacific Sports Federation games they had to settle with a 0-0 tie and a 1-0 win.
The tie came against 2-6-2 Air Force in Colorado Springs on Friday, and the 1-0 win came on the road against 5-4-1 Denver in a downpour Sunday. Those two teams are not exactly the cream of the crop the Lobos saw during the regular season, as they had wins against No. 30-ranked Southern Methodist University, No. 26-ranked South Florida University and then-No. 18-ranked Ohio State University.
UNM head coach Jeremy Fishbein said the tie at Air Force was more of a blessing than a curse for the Lobos.
"It probably will prove to be a very good thing, that tie against Air Force," he said. "We felt like it was a loss, yeah, but it just shows that there's no easy games."
UNM's leading scorer, Jeff Rowland, said that after last season, the Lobos are used to having bull's-eyes painted all over them.
"Our conference isn't regarded as the best conference, but it's tough to play these teams twice in the season," he said. "We have a huge target on our backs. Whenever you're ranked that high, it makes it so the other teams want to win that much more."
Even though the MPSF might not be one of the top conferences in the country, Rowland said the Lobos' games this weekend are not going to be walks in the park - especially Sunday's matchup with conference foe San Jose State University.
Rowland said he still has a sour taste in his mouth from last season and the one before.
Last year against San Jose State, Rowland caught a hand to the face that left him with a black eye. The year before that five players were ejected - three from the Lobos and two from the Spartans - in a bench-clearing fracas in the MPSF conference final.
"There's definitely still a rivalry," he said. "They're always trying to start fights. Last year, getting hit in the face, yeah, they got a bone to pick with us."
