Lobo men cruise past UNLV to win home opener

After a tough opening weekend on the road that knocked the New Mexico men’s soccer team from the national rankings, the Lobos turned things around in their home opener Friday against former conference rival UNLV.

Two quick strikes in the first half allowed New Mexico (1-2) to coast to a 3-0 win over the Rebels (1-2).

The Lobos also benefited from an early red card to Danny Musovski, who was dismissed in the 17th minute after a hard-sliding challenge on UNM midfielder Antoine Vial.

And two minutes later, it paid dividends for the Lobos when forward Sam Gleadle started the scoring after a feed from Devin Boyce. He slid the ball past a defender on the near wing and UNLV goalkeeper Enrique Adame before tucking it just inside the far post.

“In the pregame we talked about keeping one us of high at all times, that’s how we could get in behind them,” Gleadle said. “And Devin played a great ball. I just did a little bit around the keeper. It was a tight angle, but it was a good finish. A great team goal and that’s the way we wanted to start off.”

Insurance came seven minutes before halftime when Nick Taylor took a pass from Aaron Herrera, then fired one from over 30 yards out that found the mark for his first career goal.

The final score game with 11 minutes remaining when Vial polished off a penalty kick after he was fouled while making a deep run with the ball for his first goal as a Lobo.

Playing at home was helpful, Gleadle said.

Lobos coach Jeremy Fishbein, while satisfied with the victory, was not pleased with the way his squad reacted to the tenor of the game.

“We kind of have a vision of how we want to play,” he said. “We did some very good things. It’s great to score three goals, get the shutout. But I thought we probably weren’t as mature as I would have liked to have seen. We knew what the game was going to be like. We knew that was an emotional team. And we kind of played into their hands.”

And that led scoring chances that the Rebels should not have had.

“We reacted too much,” the coach said. “We weren’t above it. Instead of keeping the ball and being disciplined and opening them up, at times we allowed the game to get stretched and gave them a few more opportunities than we should have.”

NOTE: The Lobos have a 12-game home unbeaten streak (10-0-2), dating back to Oct. 27. 2105.

Women

NEW MEXICO 1, PORTLAND 0: In Seattle, UNM put together one of its best performances of the early season as the Lobos controlled the contest from opening whistle to the final horn to take down Portland.

UNM (3-2) allowed the Pilots (2-3), who have won a pair of national championships (2002, 2005) and several former players who have played for the U.S. national team, just five shots total with none of them on goal while taking 16 (five on goal).

UNM scored in the 64th minute when Quincy Slora crossed a ball into Claire Lynch in front of the goal and the senior from Albuquerque punched it in.