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10/7_soccer

Junior forward James Rogers tries to escape from several Charlotte players during Friday’s game at the UNM Soccer Complex.The game ended in a 0-0 tie. Head coach Jeremy Fishbein said it was the team’s worst performance of the year so far.

Lobos outshot in tie game

assistantsports@dailylobo.com
@JROppenheim

In what head coach Jeremy Fishbein called the most lackluster showing this year, the New Mexico men’s soccer team settled for a scoreless tie with Charlotte in Friday night’s Conference USA home opener.

The Lobos attempted only seven shots against the 49ers, who had eight. Senior forward James Rogers managed UNM’s only two shots on goal, both of which Charlotte goalkeeper Klay Davis saved. Fishbein’s squad had not been outshot by an opponent this season prior to this.

On the positive side, the coach said, UNM remains undefeated early in conference play with a win and a draw in two matches. However, the Lobos (5-3-2 overall) still have not claimed a home victory in more than a month.

“We were pretty average,” Fishbein said. “In terms of the season thus far, this would be, to me, our worst performance. The plus being you get the shutout. You stayed the course. It’s not all negatives. It’s a missed opportunity. The disappointment is that we didn’t play that well.”

UNM did find the net one time in the first half when midfielder Josh Dye’s shot from outside the box made it past Davis, but a Lobo foul negated the score. Lobo goalkeeper Lisch stopped both first-half shots taken by Charlotte midfielders Tyler Gibson and Brandt Bronico. Both attempts came in the final eight minutes of the half.

Rogers had one of UNM’s best looks in the first half, firing the Lobos’ lone shot on goal at the 26:27 mark from the right wing. He had another shot sail wide from the far left wing. Redshirt freshman midfielder Chris Wehan’s shot early in the first half, also from the far left wing, also went wide.

“We were pretty poor in the first half, to be honest; we were fortunate to go into halftime 0-0,” Fishbein said. “We had a couple of moments, but they were a very direct team. They stuck to their plan, they didn’t over play, and we weren’t connecting passes.”

UNM did not attempt a corner kick in the first 45 minutes, while Charlotte took four.

The 49ers took the only shots-on-goal in the second half, both from junior forward Giuseppe Gentile near UNM’s goal. Gentile’s second shot came in the last five minutes of regulation time. Midfielder Ben McKendry had two second-half shots for UNM, and defender Riley McGovern had the other. Rogers’ second shot-on-goal came in overtime.

Though the offense struggled, the defense came through with a clean sheet. Lisch finished with a season-high four saves for his fourth shutout this season, and the Lobo back defended five Charlotte corner kicks.

“I thought our back line of (Nick) Miele, (Kyle) Venter, Gibbo (Michael Gibbons) and Oniel (Fisher) were great,” Lisch said. “They were winning headers and just kept fighting. I was really proud of them. They put a lot of pressure denying serves and there was a lot of good effort.”

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Fishbein recorded his 28th tie in 238 games as UNM head coach.

“I still feel pretty good about our team and where we are in the conference,” he said. “It’s still all ahead of us. We’ve got to be better next game. We’ve got to have our confidence back, we’ve got to be fresh and we’ve got to get at them.”

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