New Mexico put on a scoring clinic as it cruised past Pacific 5-2 Sunday afternoon in the team’s last game of the California road trip, picking up its first win of the season in the process.
The Lobos scored the most goals on the road since 2009 with a huge margin of victory. The effectiveness of UNM’s second half adjustments showed on the stat sheet, with the Lobos having scored four out of the five goals during that time period -- three of which came in the first 10 minutes out of the break.
The first goal of the game came in the 17th minute when Jennifer Muñoz took a corner kick from Katie Hinman and buried it in the back of the net to give UNM a 1-0 advantage. Muñoz will remember it as her first career collegiate goal.
The rest of the first half wasn’t particularly eventful. The Lobos finished with seven shots (all on goal) compared to only one (not on goal) by Pacific.
Just two minutes into the second half the Lobos started their impressive 10-minute run. Jessie Hix began by leaping into the air for a header to give New Mexico a 2-0 lead. Pacific would answer quickly, however, as Sigrid Aas scored a goal off a yellow card to cut the lead in half, making it 2-1.
New Mexico wasn’t fazed by Aas’ goal, scoring back-to-back times to stretch its lead to 4-1 with 35 minutes of play left in the game.
Pacific tried to get back in the match after Loren Landrus dribbled a goal past New Mexico’s goalie in the 73rd minute to cut the deficit down to 4-2. But the Lobos found a way to put the game away when Claire Lynch scored a penalty kick -- her first of the year -- to extend the lead 5-2.
“I was really pleased that we found a way to win today,” said Lobos head coach Heather Dyche in a release. “Pacific didn’t have a Friday game and we had a hard battle against Cal, so the team had to dig deep. Four different goal scorers is a real positive thing, so we will keep building on this.”
The first three goals scored by the Lobos in Sunday’s match were by Jennifer Muñoz, Jessie Hix and Gwen Maly. All three of these players were first time collegiate goal scorers.
UNM finished the game with 18 shots on goal, compared to five by Pacific. The effort was a balanced one by New Mexico as six Lobos took two or more shots.
UNM’s goalie, Tayler Hammack, had a sound game with three saves, coming up big in the victory for the Lobos (1-2-0).
New Mexico dropped its first two games of the year, both to ranked opponents. The Lobos continue their streak of away games as they travel to Utah to play Webster State on Friday. The game is set to begin at 3:30 p.m. MT.
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Nate Taglialegami is a sports reporter for the Daily Lobo. He primarily covers women's soccer. He can be reached at sports@dailylobo.com or on Twitter @NateTag21.
