Miners Get Two Wins to Wrap up Long Fall Season

by Paul Fuierer

Right: 2007 Miners Soccer Team. (Click for bigger picture.)

SOCORRO, N.M., Nov. 26, 2007 -- It was another tough season for the New Mexico Tech men’s soccer team. It was also a historic year, as the Miners hosted the NIRSA southwest regional tournament for the first time ever. But the hope and expectation for several NIRSA conference wins didn’t materialize.

The Miners ended the regular NIRSA collegiate club soccer season without a single win, and entered the tournament ranked last in the conference with a record of 0-7-0 (0-11-1 including non-conference games). Several of the games were close one-goal games, but the Miners just couldn’t get the lucky bounces or the superstar effort that it sometimes takes to get the win.

Left: Senior Russel Maier jumps to block one of the many shots in the NIRSA regional conference semi-final game against ASU. The Sundevils eliminated the Miners, 4-0.

It wasn’t until the late October regional tournament on the NM Tech campus that the Miners finally experienced the high of victory. The 6th ranked Miners defeated 3rd ranked Northern Arizona University (NAU) in the first round game by a score of 2-1. Both Miner goals were scored in the first half, one by forward Tyson Gobble, the other by midfielder James Martin. The NAU Lumberjacks pressed hard in the second half, but the Miners’ defense was able to hold them to just one goal. The win put the Miners into the semi-final game, just 2 hours later, against Arizona State University. The 2nd ranked Sundevils, with a bye in the first round, were simply too fresh, fast and furious, beating the Miners decidedly with a score of 4-0.

The next morning, the Miners met New Mexico State in the 3rd place consolation game, but played poorly and allowed the short-sided but determined Aggies to score the lone goal of the game off of a free kick. The Techies ended in 4th place in the 6 team tournament.

The University of Arizona (UoA) Wildcats ended up winning a very physical final game against ASU. As regional champion, UoA earned the bid to the National Championship tournament in Pensacola Florida (Nov. 17-18) where they lost to Texas Tech in the quarter finals.

On November 10, the Miners finally had the opportunity to face some lesser opponents in a friendly charity tournament at the United World College in Montezuma, NM. With several starters absent including the goalkeeper, the Techies allowed the New Mexico Highlands (NMHU) team to capitalize on the weakened defense and go up 2-0 in the first half. A third goal right at the start of the 2nd half seemed to embarrass the Miners, who found some fire and turned the game into an exciting come-back (goals by Andy Herres, Gobble and Sepp Fuierer). But the Miners allowed NMHU a fourth goal, and lost 4-3. NMHU then beat the host UWC 2-1 to win the tournament. In the meantime, the NMT Miners thoroughly enjoyed playing a weak international UNM club team, trouncing them with lots of goals (final score of 10-1). Seniors Jon Smith and Jake Smith recorded two goals each. This last game of the season gave a much needed boost to player stats as well as the total season record for the Miners (2-14-1).

The next competition for the Miners will take place in February, when they host the annual Mark Underwood tournament, run by the Albuquerque Soccer League. For more info, visit http://infohost.nmt.edu/~soccer/Welcome.html.

-NMT -