Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Team pulls off second upset of ranked team Sunday
Greyhound sophomore Tommaso Favro watches his shot on goal in the second half of Sunday's game at Greyhound Stadium. The Greyhounds topped No. 3 Fort Hays State 2-0.
PORTALES — At the rate it was going Sunday, Eastern New Mexico’s men’s soccer team would soon have worry about being the nationally-ranked team trying to avoid an upset and not the team trying to score the upset.
That’s now reality. The Greyhounds, fresh off two wins over ranked opponents, Lund themselves No. 17 in the latest United States Soccer Coaches Association poll. They blanked No. 3 Fort Hays State Sunday at Greyhound Stadium.
Goals from Joaquin Borruel and Gabriel Peres paved the way for the Green and Silver, now 2-0 on the season with Sunday’s win and Thursday’s 2-0 road win at No. 17 Colorado Mesa.
The Greyhounds, picked to finish fifth in Lone Star Conference play, have shown early on they have clear aspirations to go higher. But coach Jon Fridal said part of the process is to stay grounded.
“We haven’t won anything yet,” Fridal said. “We’ve got a deep team full of guys itching to go. That’s going to keep things sharp. We’re not a finished product.
“It’s nice that we’re beating ranked teams, but at the beginning of the season everything’s chaotic. We’ve got to get to the point where we can play 90 minutes straight and not give a team anything.”
The 90 minutes the Greyhounds did play Sunday did the job, as the defense held Santiago Agudelo, last year’s national player of the year, to just three shots.
“They moved the ball quickly and they attacked pretty well and put pressure on us, which made us make mistakes that ultimately got them the two goals,” Tigers coach Gerry Cleary said. “We just need to grow up quickly. We’ve got a target on our back — or we did — and I know Eastern New Mexico is a good program that’s going to upset a lot of schools this year. We wish them all the best and we’ll figure out what we need to do.”
Keeper Ross Dalton, who on Tuesday was named the LSC’s goalkeeper of the week, had five saves for his second shutout. Borruel joined him in honors with the conference’s defensive player of the week award.
The Greyhounds got on the scoreboard about 25 minutes in, as Charlie Hackshall placed a corner kick in just the right spot for Borruel to head it in. It was one of nine corner kicks on the day and seven in the first half for the Greyhounds, who enjoyed a 9-4 advantage in that category over the Tigers.
Peres notched the second goal on a free kick from about 20 yards out.
“We had an amazing first half possessing the ball,” Peres said. “The first goal was something we’ve been training for, and the second goal I was happy to hit that free kick.”
The Greyhounds now face a big test with five consecutive road matches before their noon Sept. 28 game against Texas Permian Basin. They head to Dixie State Friday, and will stay there for a Sunday neutral-site game against Westminster.
