New Mexico forward Alesia Garcia was tripped up in the box late in Friday night's Rio Grande Rivalry match.
Both college football teams are probably entering Saturday's Rio Grande Rivalry game exactly where most fans thought they might be. Saturday's matchup could mark a pivotal moment in both team's seasons and a lot might be riding on the line at Aggie Memorial Stadium. UNM head coach Bob Davie has often referred to not letting the air out of the balloon, making the analogy in several of the past season openers. The idea being that teams can sometimes let a pin poke that metaphorical balloon and things go flat before it even realizes what happened. Even though it is week three for UNM, not many things could let whatever is left in balloon that is Lobo fan support, than losing to its in-state rival for the third season in a row. A loss for the University of New Mexico football team could undo any momentum the program has started to regain and potentially thwart hopes of trying to bring in the casual fan to attend future home games — support a financially struggling athletic department could desperately use.
The college football edition of the Rio Grande Rivalry will take place on Saturday, but fans don't have to wait that long to get a peek at the Lobos and Aggies battling things out for pride an bragging rights and women's soccer takes the spotlight Friday night. Things seem to be going in opposite directions for the two programs. The University of New Mexico women's soccer team has benefitted from its ability to win at home to even its season record, while New Mexico State has stumbled out of the gate and has enjoyed just one victory so far. Fans of New Mexico and New Mexico State never seem to be at a loss for words about each other, and often times they don't agree on much. But there is one thing the teams agree on and the schools will even partner together to prove it.
The UNM hockey team is back this Friday facing off against the Colorado School of Mines for their opening game of the season. Last year, the team, led by head coach Grant Harvey, landed themselves in the ACHA National Championship. Last year, the Lobos finished the regular season with a 20-4-1 record and impressively remained undefeated for the first 11 of those games. The goal this year will be for the team to somehow find its way back a nationals— something Harvey said would be an achievement in and of itself.
It’s now or never for the junior transfer Sheriron Jones, who finds himself the starting quarterback for the University of New Mexico Lobos in week three of the season, against the rival New Mexico State Aggies. It was only two Saturdays ago that Jones, a Moreno Valley, California native, found himself as the third option for the Lobos, with redshirt sophomore Tevaka Tuioti being named the starter, and redshirt senior Colton Gerhart being named Tuioti’s backup. Jones, at one point, was at Tennessee as a freshman, although he didn’t play and sat on the bench before transferring. He then played at Mt. San Jacinto, a junior college, before coming to New Mexico.
The Lobo men’s soccer team suffered a 2-1 loss to the UCSB Gauchos on Tuesday night at the UNM Soccer Complex as a pair of corner kicks in the opening minutes of the second half proved the difference. “That was a game you needed to handle,” head coach Jeremy Fishbein said. “Two bad mistakes in the first seven minutes of the second half, that’s what we talked about. I’m pretty disappointed in our performance and our maturity today.”
MADISON, Wis. -- The University of New Mexico defense was unable to slow down Wisconsin star Jonathan Taylor, who turned in a career day with career-high 253 yards as well as three touchdowns in a 45-14 victory on Saturday afternoon. The Lobos received the opening kickoff and immediately put together a long, methodical drive that lasted 17 plays and covered 87 yards — one that included four third-down conversions and took 7:38 off the clock. The drive culminated with an 11-yard pass from Tevaka Tuioti to Delane Hart-Johnson that gave UNM an early 7-0 lead and silenced a crowd of 77,003 at Camp Randall Stadium. “I really felt offensively we had a great rhythm early in the game,” head coach Bob Davie said. “I thought honestly schematically there were some things we could do. When (Tuioti) went out...we didn’t get much done after that.”
The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team did its best to weather the storm against No. 23 Tulsa, but came up short in a 2-1 loss in double overtime. New Mexico’s record fell to 2-3 on the season after dropping a pair of one-goal matches on its road trip, while Tulsa improved to 3-1-1.
The UNM Soccer Complex continued to be a safe haven for the Lobos, as the University of New Mexico women's soccer team remained perfect there with a win on Friday night over the UTEP Miners. New Mexico (3-0) took control of the match early on, getting scoring chance after scoring chance. And it didn't take long for the Lobos to cash in as sophomore midfielder Cami Floth found the ball off a corner kick and drove home her first career goal at the 8:38 mark to give UNM a 1-0 lead. Just minutes later, Floth played a hand in setting up New Mexico's second goal. The sophomore sent another corner kick into the box and dropped an assist on fellow sophomore Alexa Kirton — who launched a header past UTEP goalkeeper Alyssa Palacios.
Bob Davie doesn’t want to worry about what the Wisconsin Badgers are going to do on Saturday. He wants to focus on his team, and what they can do against one of the best teams in the country in No. 5 Wisconsin. “(I) respect the chance to just go up there and play them, I really mean that,” Davie said. “They are unique to college football in some ways in this era of spread offense. They’re very good, it’s really a very aligned program from top to bottom.” The game is the first between the two schools and will kick off at 10 a.m. mountain time and will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network from Camp Randall Stadium.
Things didn’t go as planned for the University of New Mexico women’s soccer team last weekend, as they lost both matches, putting the Lobos at 2-3 so far this season. Their losses came against UC Davis and San Francisco in California. New Mexico’s two wins this season have both come at home against Pacific and Idaho State. Its three losses have all come on the road, including the season opener to Texas Tech.
The University of New Mexico football team, with its newly revamped offense, proved to be too much for University of the Incarnate Word Cardinals on Saturday evening, defeating them 62-30 at Dreamstyle Stadium in its season opener. Despite the score, though, the Lobos gave up 566 yards in total offense to UIW -- something head coach Bob Davie said his team has to fix soon. “We can’t win with the kind of performance we had on defense,” he said. “We got to take this personal, we got to bounce back, we got to watch the tape. And we need to clean all this out and move forward because I know we can play better (defensively). ... We’re not gonna be able to do this offensively to other people like we did tonight, let’s be honest.”
Some coaches and players rival politicians and public speakers in the gift of saying a lot, while at the same time saying nothing at all. Many of the responses start to become routine — and although the words can be particularly useful when they are trying to divert attention away from an issue or a controversy — they become stale or "cliché." Clichés are especially prevalent in sports and can yield reactions from people that range from laughter to eye rolling to outright disgust. Some of them used to be creative before they became commonplace, and not all of them can show up in one article, but here are some of the best and worst clichés— along with an analysis from a coach that has probably heard and said plenty of them. One of the most important positions in hockey is the goalkeeper. He or she has to locate a fast-moving puck in the midst of a bunch of bodies and try to prevent it from slipping past their glove or stick to light the lamp. If a goalie is particularly acrobatic or saves a lot of shot attempts, many say "the goalie really stood on their head today out there".
The UNM volleyball brought the house down in two match ups this weekend while hosting the annual Lobo Classic, but fell in three sets against the NM State Aggies in the final match of the tournament.
With the large budget and team cuts being made to the athletic department of the University of New Mexico, it is comforting to know there are other options for students to get engaged through athletics during the brief college years. Intramural and club sports on campus can be a great option for athletes and non-athletes looking to compete and travel in casual settings. Unlike school-sponsored teams, club sports are not associated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association. Instead, these sports are student-run and have a student-centered approach to athletic activity.
Andy Schwarz, an Antitrust Economist who helps to run the site Sportsgeekonomics, has analyzed the University of New Mexico’s analysis of the money the University would save by cutting the four sports scheduled to be discontinued at the end of the 2018-19 fiscal year. Upon reviewing the information, Schwarz believes that UNM has overstated the financial benefits by nearly $800,000 due to a loss of revenue from the student-athletes who attend on partial scholarships that will choose to go elsewhere, as well as other factors.
The University of New Mexico men’s soccer team won one and lost another during the team’s first road trip of the year, losing a 1-0 decision to Cal State-Northridge before ending the weekend with a 5-1 win over Cal State-Fullerton. While the Lobos were able to outshoot CSUN 14-10, including 9-4 in shots on goal, but unable to break through on the scoreboard. Goalkeeper Henrik Regitnig recorded eight saves while the team was credited with one.
Things went well for the University of New Mexico women's soccer team at home, but it did not lead to good things on the road as the Lobos lost a pair of matches in California. New Mexico's record fell to 2-2 on Friday night, despite outshooting the UC Davis Aggies in the match.
In their season opener, the Lobos new offense put on a show against FCS opponent the University of the Incarnate Word in a 62-30 victory. Tevaka Tuioti looked the part of a starting quarterback, finishing with 327 yards, four passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown. It was the highest point total for the Lobos since a 66-0 victory of Mississippi Valley State in 2015.
“We had great momentum as I stood here a year ago — well, we lost that momentum — and we have to go get it back.” Losing has a tendency to make fans and critics alike forget things, but University of New Mexico head football coach Bob Davie’s statement above is accurate — as good times weren’t all that long ago. It was August 27, 2017 and Davie stood in front of the media talking about the upcoming season.The program wasn’t just riding high, it was an all-time high. New Mexico had just put together the best two-year stretch in program history.
Solutions by The State News
