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The UNM men’s soccer team needed double overtime to dispatch UC Irvine 2-1 on Sunday.
With fewer than two minutes left in the second overtime, freshman Ben McKendry sent a corner kick flying to redshirt sophomore Carson Baldinger, who headed it in for the golden goal in the 109th minute.
Baldinger said he was just in the right place at the right time for his first goal of the season.
“The first corner we had at the end of the last two minutes, Ben put the ball right where I was before we had the second corner that ended up winning it,” Baldinger said. “I stayed in the exact same spot, and he honestly put it in the exact same spot, and it was the same exact header, same play, it just went in this time. All the credit goes to him and the defense for the win today.”
The Lobos had a 1-0 lead with 20 seconds left in regulation when UNM was called for a foul, and UC Irvine set up right at the top left of the Lobos’ box. The Anteaters shot the ball to the goal, but senior goalie Victor Rodriguez deflected it straight to UC Irvine sophomore Cameron Iwasa, who scooted the ball through a sea of bodies to tie the game 1-1 with three seconds left.
Baldinger said the goal was unfortunate because the Lobos had dominated the Anteaters throughout the second half.
“It was crazy, but we can’t be giving up fouls in late minutes of the game. If we do that, we get susceptible to getting scored on.
They rushed it, and we didn’t get anybody in front of the ball, and we didn’t get any pressure on it,” he said. “Then we won the initial header, but we didn’t have any bounce on it. It was a great finish, a great shot and it went through a bunch of bodies.”
Head coach Jeremy Fishbein said the win is the only thing that matters after such a taxing game.
“I think just like Friday, the focus needs to be on the positive, and you’re going to have some of these games over the season,” he said. “And the guys stayed confident and finished it off so… I’m real proud of them, but there were some things that gave us a little more stress than we needed. We got the win, and that’s what we have to focus on.”
Sophomore James Rogers scored the first goal of the game after senior Blake Smith made a split-second pass through defenders to an open Rogers for an untested goal, putting the Lobos up 1-0 in the 59th minute.
In the 84th minute, senior Devon Sandoval ran a breakaway down the field and made a rocket pass to Smith, who whiffed on the ball and missed an easy goal. It was one of many chances the Lobos left on the field.
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Fishbein said UNM had several opportunities to put away the game but couldn’t cash in on any of them.
“That’s a game that we put ourselves in more trouble than we needed to. We should’ve put the game away early; it shouldn’t have been 1-0 … What more can you say? The challenge to our guys is you take those chances, and you don’t leave teams in it,” he said.
“And you left a much lesser team in the game, and soccer is a crazy game in which it takes some crazy bounces. Who would’ve thought they tied it up? Our reaction was good, and we got a good goal to win it.”
Baldinger has only six career goals and said he scores in late game situations because he excels under pressure.
“It’s been my life since last year, and if you look at it, all of my goals, they have been game winners,” he said. “Unfortunately, I don’t get a lot of goals, but when they do, they count, and that’s all I care about.”
