Miners Face Northern Arizona to Finish Spring Season

Right: Tyson Gobble winds up for the first goal in the 3rd place consolation game against the “Streetfrogs.” The Miners won the game 4-0. Gobble was tournament MVP for the Miners with a total of seven goals, including a hat trick in the 1st game. Photo courtesy of Peter Trujillo

SOCORRO, N.M., April 23, 2007 – The NMT Miner Men’s Soccer Team finishes its spring exhibition season with a flurry of activity in the coming week. They travel to Flagstaff this weekend to play in a tournament hosted by Northern Arizona University (NAU), and then host their own mini tournament in Socorro the following weekend (April 28-29).

The Miners look forward to the opportunity to get a preview of the newly formed NAU team. In the regular 2007 fall season, NAU will be re-joining the southwest conference of NIRSA’s region 6 collegiate club soccer, to which NMT belongs. The Miners should enjoy the company of the moderately sized school to balance the other powerhouse members of the conference. After winning the regional tournament in October, the University of Arizona went all the way to the semi-final in the Championship Division of the 2006 NIRSA national tournament, losing 1-0 to the eventual champ, University of Michigan. Arizona State finished first in the Open Division, beating Kansas in the final. The fact that the Tech Miners played both UA and ASU in two tightly contested games (1-0 and 1-0 losses) in their last road trip to Arizona is a testament to their ability. The Miners will host these and other conference opponents in the 2007 regional tournament October 27 here in Socorro.

Left: Peter “Sneaks” Munk is the enforcer on the Miners defense. Photo courtesy of Peter Trujillo

Spring semester is a time for more relaxed exhibition play, and an opportunity to try out some new players. Earlier in the semester, Tech hosted the Annual Underwood tournament, organized by the New Mexico State Soccer Association. It was a tournament which could have been won by any of the top 3 teams. Although scoring more goals than any other in the tournament, and finishing with the best goals for-goals against statistic, the Miners had to settle for 3rd place. The “Aztec Warriors”, a new ASL team with several local Socorro players as members, got the right goals at the right time to take the first place trophy.

A few weeks later on March 25, the Miners got revenge, and dealt the Aztec Warriors a 3-1 loss. Goal scorers were Tyson Gobble, Galen Hartenberger, and Sepp Fuierer. Socorro player Rafael Villagomez scored the lone Warrior goal in the final minute of the game. Another player in that game, familiar to Socorro soccer, was Joe Romero, guest playing as goalkeeper for the Miners.

Stay tuned for game times for the April 28 and 29 tournament. For more information about the Miners, check out their website at http://infohost.nmt.edu/~soccer/ .