Disappointing Season Opener in Tempe for the NMT Miners

New Mexico Tech's Michael Butkus watches Miguel Sanchez and Galen Hartenberger close in on a Thunderbird player as he tries to control the ball. The NMT Miners yield their first game of the season to Thunderbird College 3-2.

by coach Paul Fuierer

Sept. 14, 2004 -- The New Mexico Tech Miners men’s soccer team kicked off their 2004 fall season last weekend with two games in Tempe, Arizona. Their first opponent was Thunderbird College, a team that the Miners beat a year ago with a score of 6-2. But the long drive to Tempe on game day and the scorching heat took its toll on the Techies, who came up on the losing side of this one 3-2.

Thunderbird picked up a few new, big, and talented players, capable of shooting at 30 yards. The Miners did have control of the game most of the first half, but couldn’t seem to get a good bounce. Several shots flew just wide of the posts, and one off the cross-bar.

The occasional threat came from the Thunderbird team in the form of a quick transitional play, and strong shot from the big midfielder. The first one of these that hit the back of the net was a real disappointment for the Miners. They came out flat for the second half, and paid for it with another T-bird goal.

That seemed to wake the Miners, who began to take control of the game once again. At the 60th minute, midfielder Galen Hartenberger received the ball from forward Alejandro Gauna, and dribbled three defenders before tapping the ball into the goal.

At the 70th minute, the Miners' momentum got disrupted when sweeper Stew Robertson was forced to make a tackle on a forward in the box. The referee didn’t like what he saw, and awarded the penalty kick to the T-bird, who powered it by Goalie Josh Lynch.

Down 3-1, the Miners gave one hundred percent effort, pounding at the T-bird defense for the last 20 minutes of the game. But the effort only came up with one goal by Gauna (assist from freshman Michael Butkus). The Miner bench moaned as shots sailed past, not into the goal. The final whistle blew too soon for the Techies, and it was a disappointing start to the season.

The Miners didn’t come into their game the next morning with a lot of confidence. Their opponent was Arizona State, who had already devoured T-bird 6-0.

For the first ten minutes of the game, the Sundevils passed the ball around, through and over the apparently still Miners. The first ASUimg goal came from a fast break down the left wing, and a brilliant cross to an open man in the box who easily put the ball away. Their second goal came about five minutes later from a cornerkick which did not get cleared, but fell to the ground directly in front of an ASU player.

The Miners finally picked up their level of play, began stringing passes together, and were able to get some good possession time, minimizing the number of scoring opportunities for ASU. But ASU struck again, with a through ball into the goalie box and the speedy forward running onto it.

It was Hartenberger who said enough’s enough, stealing the ball from an ASU defender and quickly putting it past the keeper. That was a confidence booster as the Miners went into half-time.

The second half was a much more competitive and entertaining game. The Miners got used to the 110-degree heat, showed much more movement off the ball, proper checking to the ball, and creating many more scoring opportunities for themselves.

The young defense got much more aggressive, winning more balls out of the air. Energy soared when Hartenberger tapped a crossed ball into the net and Tech thought they were back in the game, but the referee called the ball back for an off-sides. Unfortunately, the lone goal scored in the second half was by ASU for a final score of 4-1, duplicating last year’s match up between the two schools.

Despite the two losses, the Miners are excited about the remainder of the NIRSA collegiate club season. The team looks forward to this weekend’s home game match up against New Mexico State (Saturday, Sept. 18, 1 p.m.) and the chance for revenge on Thunderbird (Sunday, Sept. 19, 10 a.m.) Both games are at the NMT athletic field, and are free of charge for the public.

-NMT-