by Vanessa Strobbe
Daily Lobo
A breakout day for sophomore Brandon Barklage helped the UNM men's soccer team barely scrape by its second unranked opponent of the weekend.
Barklage's two assists and momentum-shifting goal led the No. 18 Lobos to a 3-2 comeback victory over the College of Charleston Cougars in the final game of the New Mexico Youth Soccer Association Classic on Sunday.
UNM also defeated American in overtime Friday, 1-0, giving the Lobos their first weekend with two wins this season.
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"To come out with two wins this weekend is huge for us," said goalkeeper Mike Graczyk. "It's a huge confidence booster to produce like we did these past couple of days."
The Lobo offense established control early Sunday afternoon, scoring within the first four minutes of the game.
Chris Wright, assisted by Graczyk and Barklage, headed a ball past Cougar goalkeeper Corbin Waller.
Despite Charleston's three shots to the Lobos' six, neither team was able to capitalize the rest of the half, leaving the score 1-0 with 45 minutes left to play.
The Lobos staged a slow start in the second half, as Charleston tied the game at 52 minutes with a shot from the top of the box that clipped the crossbar and went into the goal.
"We pretty much had control of the game the whole first half," head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. "We said to the team at halftime that if we don't put teams away, you don't know what happens. They might have a few good chances and score on both of them. That's exactly what happened."
The Cougars' second goal came in the 56th minute from a free kick 35 yards from the goal. Graczyk said that is when the Lobos' attitude changed and people started to step up.
"Once we got scored on, we realized how hard we were going to have to work for a win," he said.
In the 62nd minute, Andrew Boyens assisted Barklage with a throw-in. Barklage shot the ball into the Cougar net from two yards away to tie the game and shift the momentum back to the Lobos.
"We were down, and we needed to get a goal," Barklage said. "It was good to get that early enough so that o ur defense could do the job from there."
The Lobos' defense only allowed two shots after the Cougars' last score. Graczyk made two saves in the contest, one in each half.
To put the game away at the 73-minute mark, Barklage assisted Boyens on a corner kick. Boyens' header sent the ball into the net, putting the Lobos up 3-2.
"When we're in a tough situation, we need guys to step up and play the way (Barklage) did today," Graczyk said. "Our whole team needs to keep things like that up going into conference."
Fishbein said the team is coming together at the right time.
"Barklage played extremely well today, and all things considered, our team showed some very good things," Fishbein said. "This weekend, we didn't get the 90-minute effort in both games like we hoped for, but we showed flashes of being a very, very good team."
