Miners Bungle in Durango

Right: Sophomore Andy Herres turns the ball past his Northern Arizona University opponent. Herres, scoring his first goal of the season, was the Miner MVP for the game.

SOCORRO, N.M., Sept. 19, 2007 – The Miners traveled to Durango last weekend (Sept. 15 and 16) to participate in a NIRSA soccer tournament that has become an annual September event hosted by Ft. Lewis College. The University of Northern Colorado (UNC) and Northern Arizona University (NAU) were the other two Tech opponents.

Saturday back-to-back games against UNC and NAU were closely contested. In the first match, both NMT and UNC defenses held strong as the game remained scoreless until the 83rd minute, when Miner Andy Herres cut the ball back on his defender and placed a left-footed cross into the box for Sepp Fuierer to finish with a header. The Miners were elated, thinking they had earned their first win of the season, and pulled players to rest them for the next game. That move proved to be a mistake, as UNC equalized the game just two minutes later. Adding salt to a wound, with only 15 seconds remaining in the game, the referee awarded an arguable penalty kick to UNC, who gladly took the gift and the game 2-1.

After the shock wore off, the Miners quickly tried to regroup to start the next match against NAU. The Miners began the game with a number of new players, in an attempt to rest the weary legs of the starting team. NAU capitalized, scoring within 3 minutes of the kick-off by intercepting a weak defensive back-pass. The Miners subsequently shored up the defense, and began stringing pass combinations together. Spirits lifted in the 30th minute when forward Santiago Flores received a through-ball from James Martin, and fired a shot past the NAU keeper to the upper corner. NAU scored again in the 55th minute, but the Miners continued to battle. In the 75th minute, Andy Herres broke from his defender and put the ball low and just inside the near post for the equalizer. The game finished in a 2-2 tie.

In their final game Sunday morning, the Miners went up against the Ft. Lewis team. The Techies were ill-prepared and looked to be asleep, again allowing their opponent to score within the first few minutes of the game. “The Fort” pounded away the entire game, scoring at 40, 50 and 60 minutes, with several other shots rebounding off the posts. The only high point for the Miners came in the 75th minute when freshman winger Chris Hatcher drew a penalty kick and beat the keeper for his first goal. The game finished with a score of 4-1.

The Miners are now 0-4-1 for the season (0-2-0 conference record). The first home games take place this Saturday (Sept. 22) in a two friendly matches against the Armand Hammer United World College. The Miner Gold team will play at noon, while the Miner Silver team plays at 3:00 p.m. Both games are at Tech field. The Miners have their first home conference games next weekend, Saturday, Sept. 29, at 11:00 a.m. vs. UTEP, and Sunday, Sept. 30, 11:00 a.m. vs. NAU. All soccer fans are welcome and admission is free.

-NMT-