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Parity, anyone?
Adding to a tournament filled with upsets, New Mexico on Friday became the fourth high seed to lose in the Conference USA Men’s Soccer Championship. The top seed and regular-season champion Lobos dropped out of the tournament following a 3-0 loss to Tulsa.
As the No. 5 seed, the Golden Hurricanes carry the highest possible seed into Sunday’s conference championship game. They’ll play the winner No. 6 Charlotte, which edged seventh-seeded Kentucky 1-0 in Friday’s late game.
UNM (11-5-3) reverted back to a team that earlier in the season took its opportunities but had few goals to show for it. The Lobos put up 17 shots against Tulsa, including seven shots on goal, but none converted.
“Tulsa came out with incredible energy, and we didn’t match it in the early going,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said in a release. “It was something we identified.”
Lobo midfielder Ben McKendry fired five shots, including one in the second off a play from forward James Rogers that found the net. The referee called McKendry offside on the play and negated the score. UNM had a second goal called back because of an offsides ruling.
Tulsa, meanwhile, received two first-half goals from Quinton Duncan, who converted on a cross bar deflection, and Tony Rocha off a low line drive kick inside the box. The Golden Hurricanes’ third goal came from an Omar Mata penalty kick early in the second half.
Tulsa attempted 14 shots, including nine on goal. Lobo goalkeeper Michael Lisch stopped six of those nine, his second-highest save total of the season.
“It was a couple of fortunate things in their half in terms of the first goal being off a miscommunication and the second goal being off a deflection,” Fishbein said. “That being said, we had plenty of opportunities to score. It was a back-and-forth game that we didn’t get a handle on.”
Tulsa avenged a 1-0 regular-season loss to UNM in a game played in Oklahoma.
With their conference tournament run over, the Lobos must wait until Monday to see their fate when the NCAA Tournament selection show airs at 10 a.m. MST.
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“There’s a lot to learn from this,” Fishbein said. “We’ll play one at home next week, whether it’s Thursday or Sunday we will find out.”
