Lobos End Season in NCAA Second Round
SEATTLE, WASH. --- The University of New Mexico men's soccer team (12-7-3) saw its season come to a close on Sunday night with a 4-1 defeat at Washington (14-6-0) in the 2016 NCAA Second Round. The season's finish ties the sixth best in school history as the Lobos have only surpassed the second round of the NCAA tournament five times in program history.
The Lobos complete their 12th NCAA appearance in program history, 11 have which have been under head coach Jeremy Fishbein.
"I'm really proud of this team," Fishbein said. "We're not going to let today's result define who we are or define the season. I think at some point, five games in 12 games is just a mental and physical toll of things. They (Washington) got that early goal in the second half and then it just got away from us in that little 10 minute period, but I'm proud of these guys.
Now we just need to sit back and reflect on our success, appreciate our five seniors and everything we've done and then continue to move on."
The Lobos were 12-0-1 this season when scoring first heading into Sunday's match so when redshirt-sophomore Patrick Khouri netted the go-ahead goal for UNM in the 21st minute, statistics were looking favorable for the Lobos. That is, until Washington's Justin Schmidt found the equalizer just under seven minutes later.
The goal marked Khouri's first of the season and was assisted by senior Niko Hansen, who now completes his final season as a Lobo with an outstanding 29 points on 13 goals and three assists.
The squads went into halftime with the score tied 1-1. In Coach Fishbein's career, he entered the match 76-34-19 when tied at halftime.
At the break, Washington was outshooting the Lobos 7-3 and the teams had each registered four corner kicks.
Things got out of hand in the second half when, just 1:35 into the period, Washington's Scott Menzies put the Huskies back on top 2-1. Ten minutes later, Elijah Rice scored his third goal of the season to extend the Huskies' advantage to two, 3-1.
Washington's Beau Blanchard put the game out of reach with the final goal of the game in the 64th minute for the 4-1 final.
Overall, the Huskies outshot the Lobos 16-5 despite UNM's seven corner kicks to six for Washington.
Junior goalkeeper Jason Beaulieu, who ends the 2016 season with eight shutouts, posted five saves on the night compared to four for Washington's Auden Schilder.
The Lobos finish their season having not lost in their last eight games prior to Sunday's matchup, since Oct. 19 at No. 5 Denver in double overtime.
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