Lobos down Aggies, 4-0, in Battle of I-25

While the offense gets the headlines, it was the defense that set the tone on both ends of the soccer field on Sunday as New Mexico (4-0-2) extended its season-opening undefeated streak to six with a dominating 4-0 win over struggling New Mexico State (1-6).

“There’s no doubt about it, we want to be the best program in New Mexico,” Lobos coach Heather Dyche said. “And, candidly, we haven’t been the past couple years.”

That has made the rivalry even spicier, she said.

Aggies coach Rob Baarts “has done such a good job down there, and I have immense respect for them,” Dyche said. “And that actually makes the rivalry even better, because my first couple years, they weren’t great, to be honest, and it kind of felt like a game that you should win. And now, man, flip a coin. So I am really, really pleased that we won it.”

New Mexico was not pleased with losing in Las Cruces last season, so the Lobos were ready to deliver some payback.

“I think we came in with a fire under our butt,” said UNM defender Fiona Jenkins.

“It’s never fun to lose against a team like that. So we knew they were going to come in and be aggressive. So we brought the same energy and even more.”

Early on, it was the Savanah Sanchez show as the forward scored the game’s opening goal in the 21st minute, charging onto a floater from defender Allie Anderson, beating Aggies goalkeeper Valerie Guha to the ball and finishing with an airborne volley.

“I just know when I get the ball and Savi’s up there, she’s so great in the air, I know that she’s going to get on any ball that I play,” Anderson said. “So I just had full trust and faith in her.

“It’s been part of a concerted team effort to get the back line pushing forward more. I think, especially as an outside back, I want to do the best that I can to help the team go forward as well as defend,” Anderson said. “So whenever I get on the ball, I try to pick my head up and find someone who’s open to hopefully get on the end of my passes, or get a cross off and go towards goal.”

In the 35th minute, Sanchez scored again when she went high to get on the end of Jenkins’ well-placed corner kick and headed it home.

“I think it’s based off our formation,” Jenkins said of the aggressive defensive mentality. “We’re able to get forward a lot. We have a lot of girls on our team that can use their speed to get forward or post up. So I think we have the right people and the right versatility on our team to be able to do that.”

Just 30 seconds later, the Lobos all but put the game away as reserve Alejandra Puerto bolted onto a long Mercedes Morris through ball and tucked it just past Guha before the two collided.

Morris collected a second assist in the second half with a feed to Alysa Welchel, who scored her third goal of the season.

The Lobos will take the win, but Jenkins said this is just the start.

“We’re such a young team that we’re still, honestly, you guys haven’t even seen half of what’s coming,” she said. “So I think once the girls get a good foot under them, I mean, it’s gonna be really, really awesome.”

NOTES: The win equaled the Lobos’ largest in the series. …Puerto’s goal was her fourth and puts in her a tie for the team lead with Nicole Anderson. …Jenkins’ assist was her seventh of the season and is the most since Jadyn Edwards had nine in 2021. …New Mexico has 18 goals thus far, just two off last season’s total.