ENMU men's soccer suffers pair of losses

PORTALES — It was a great day for Johan Portales. It wasn’t nearly as great for the home team in Portales.

After a promising start that saw them reach the top 10 in Division II polling, hard times have fallen on Eastern New Mexico’s men’s soccer team in early Lone Star Conference play. The team lost a pair of LSC home games this week, 3-2 Thursday against St. Mary’s and 1-0 Saturday against 16th-ranked Texas A&M-International on a goal by Portales.

The Greyhounds host West Texas A&M 5 p.m. Thursday, with the match not counting in conference standings.

After that, the Greyhounds have six more LSC contests to close out the season, three at home and three on the road. After facing the Buffs, they’ll be back at Greyhound Stadium again Halloween night against Oklahoma Christian. They host Midwestern State Nov. 2 and close out the regular season at home Nov. 9 against Lubbock Christian.

Against Texas A&M-International — A free kick goal by Portales proved the difference, sending the Greyhounds to a 0-3-1 LSC record following a 6-0 start. The record also includes a 5-3 win over Texas-Permian Basin that didn’t count in LSC standings.

Eastern finished the game with six total shots, two of which were on target. Junior Charlie Hackshall proved to be a difference maker throughout the game once again for the Hounds, consistently moving the ball on the offensive attack while finishing with one of the shot on goal attempts for the Hounds.

Senior Craig Brand recorded the other shot on goal attempt for Eastern New Mexico.

A total of 33 fouls were called Saturday, and Joaquin Borruel saw his afternoon end early with a red card in the second half.

Against St. Mary’s — The Greyhounds netted the first and last goals of the night, but were unable to overcome three unanswered goals in between by the Rattlers. Sophomore Joe Conway netted his fourth goal of the season off an assist from classmate Julian Trapp at the 79:09 mark, and Conway set up Trapp for the opening goal 21 minutes in.

Jesus Valenzuela scored twice for the Rattlers, and Ollie Wright had an asisst and what proved to be the game-winner on an unassisted 58th-minute tally.

Ross Dalton had three saves in each contest for the Greyhounds.