New Mexico Tech Miners Finish Season with Win

by Coach Paul Fuierer

Right: NMT Defender Hanh Nguyen executes a slide tackle during the Miners' win over the "Street Frogs" club.

SOCORRO, N.M., May 9, 2003 -- The New Mexico Tech Miners met on Sunday, April 27, at Milne Soccer Field in Albuquerque for the last game of the 2002-2003 season. On the other side of the pitch, cloaked in green jerseys, were the "Street Frogs", another Albuquerque Soccer League division one team.

For the first ten minutes of the game, it looked like the Techies were going to swamp their opponents, repeatedly organizing strong attacks. But rather than finishing the ball to the back of the net, they simply put the ball into the keeper's arms. Then, to the Miners' surprise, the "Frogs" jumped to a two-goal lead. The first was a long ball, misjudged by the Miner defense, and picked up by the Frog forward (a Frenchman). Goal-keeper Don Bleeker was all alone to lose the one-on-one. A few minutes later, as coach and fans were trying to figure out what went wrong, an aerial attack came again. This time, the Miner defense tried to execute the offsides trap. But not all the Miners were in on the plan, and once again Bleeker fell to the one-on one.

Perhaps Senior Mike Okoro felt a little guilty. He was not playing his normal defensive position; this was his last game as a Miner, and so he was allowed to play striker. Losing his final game was not on his agenda, and Okoro seemed to get hungrier and more aggressive in front of the net. It paid off, as he put away the first of the Miners' goals. The momentum returned to the men in blue, and they resumed their dominant passing game. Minutes before halftime, a corner kick from Maurezeo Leo found the head of Nate Vanderlinder, then the foot of Derek Lamppa, and then the back of the net. The score was tied at two.

The Frogs came out quickly in the second half, with a couple of new players. But the Miners, with renewed confidence and hard tackles (by Tim Kinsworthy), denied them. The key play in the game came when Bleeker faced yet another one-on-one situation with the French Frog. This time, big Bleeker won the battle, deflecting a hard shot up and over the cross-bar.

At the other end of the field, midfielder Maurezeo Leo was displaying his magical moves - feinting, deceiving, and wearing down the Frog defense. Looking for Lamppa in front of the goal, he fired the ball from the endline which deflected off of the defender and into the goal. The Miners rejoiced as they took the lead. The Frogs, sensing defeat, started resorting to folly and fouls. The frustration got so bad, that one was ejected for kicking his own teammate. Before it was over, freshman Miner Theo Hosemann managed to get his first goal of the season, putting the final score at 4-2. Freshman Collin Horvat was another standout with two assists. The Miners ended with 17 shots on goal to the Frogs 7.

The Miners finished their 2002-2003 ASL season with a 7-6-2 winning record, placing them near the middle of the18-team 1st Division.