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Playing an extra 34 minutes during last weekend’s road trip likely won’t impact the No. 9 New Mexico men’s soccer team Friday against Santa Clara.
In fact, defender Matthew Gibbons said the Lobos could have played as soon as Wednesday night after recovering from a draw with Virginia Commonwealth and an overtime victory against Georgetown.
“We had good recovery, active recovery, which gets the body back, so there’s no worries come Friday,” Gibbons said, adding that the team was proactive in using ice and massage rollers earlier in the week.
This weekend, UNM hosts the 2013 TLC Heating, Plumbing & Cooling Lobo Invitational, featuring Santa Clara, No. 11 Cal State Northridge and Central Arkansas. In addition to Friday night’s game, the Lobos take on the Matadors Sunday.
Central Arkansas will play Cal State Northridge Friday and Santa Clara Sunday, but will not play UNM.
The Lobos improved to 2-0-1 on the season following a 1-1 tie with VCU on Sept. 6, playing two 10-minute overtime periods. Two days later, UNM and Georgetown battled in a scoreless contest until the 104th minute when Lobo redshirt freshman defender Nick Rochowski scored the game-winner.
“It was a significant weekend to see where we were playing two teams like that on the road,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “Tough trip … a different environment. I can’t say enough about our guys, focused and really unified and tough with a lot of quality.”
UNM has outscored its opponents 9-3 in three games this season, though seven goals came in the season opener against Villanova. Since the Lobo defense looks to maintain a clean sheet in the opponent’s scoring column, the Nova result came as a disappointment, Gibbons said.
However, the defense has started to jell as a unit as shown in the shutout against the Hoyas, Gibbons said.
“Our line, we were trying to hold a high line, which didn’t work in the first two games. Every thing came together (against) Georgetown,” Gibbons said. “The boys are in sync with everyone, so we’re looking forward to this weekend.”
Senior James Rogers leads the team in scoring with three goals, followed by Michael Calderon and Niko Hansen with two apiece. Goalkeeper Michael Lisch has surrendered one goal in his last 268 minutes in net.
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Santa Clara, a West Coast Conference member, comes to UNM after losing its first three games of the season to Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Washington and Stanford. The Broncos have scored two goals this season.
UNM and Santa Clara have two previous meetings, a scoreless draw in 1992 and a 2-0 Lobo win in 2011.
“It’s a hungry team. In some ways, they come here with nothing to lose,” Fishbein said. “(For Santa Clara) it’s on the road, it’s a ranked opponent. They’re probably going to come in and I imagine they’re going to try to make the game difficult for us.”
