Thursday, October 2, 2014
LUBBOCK, TEXAS – In a physical contest that saw the Eastern New Mexico men's soccer team play a man down for nearly 55 minutes, they gutted out a 2-2 draw against Lubbock Christian Thursday afternoon at LCU Soccer Field. The teams combined for 39 fouls and nine cards in the contest.
The Greyhounds are now 3-5-2 on the season and unbeaten in their last three matches while the Chaps see their record go to 2-3-1.
Just 69 seconds into the game, freshman midfielder
Daniel Sanchez (Albuquerque, N.M./Atrisco Heritage Academy) sent in a corner kick that was headed by sophomore midfielder
Jose Hernandez (Albuquerque, N.M./Albuquerque HS). The ball went to sophomore forward
Ryan McManus (St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland/Madras College), who headed the ball into the back of the net for his second goal of the year to put ENMU up 1-0.
The goal was the second fastest in school history. Former Greyhound Adam Diehl holds the program record at 1:01. He set the mark in Eastern's first-ever game on August 27, 2004 at Texas Wesleyan.
LCU tied the game 15 seconds into the second half when Darius Strambler stole the ball and put out a lead pass to Corey Hutchinson for a quick strike past freshman goalkeeper
James Gutierrez (Albuquerque, N.M./La Cueva HS).
Late in the 52 minute, the Chaps took a 2-1 advantage on a goal by Tommy Fogarty-Cameron off a corner kick. Credited with an assist was Mitchell Hopkins.
A red card was issued to senior defensive back
Eanna O'Gorman (Tipperary, Ireland/Dodge City CC) in the 56th minute that sent the Greyhounds down to 10 men.
ENMU responded in the 66th minute when senior midfielder
Abayneh Crosby (Humble, Texas/Atascocita HS) found the back of the net from six yards out for his fourth goal of the season after receiving a long pass from Hernandez. Crosby has now scored in four consecutive games which is tied for the second longest streak in program history with Ryan McClanahan (2007) and Emerson Rodrigues (2009). Former Greyhound
Kal Herbert set the record last season with goals in six straight games.
In the final 10 minutes of regulation, Eastern had four shots with attempts by Crosby and Hernandez being saved while the other two went wide of the goal.
Both overtime periods were dominated by the Chaps. They took a combined eight shots, putting half of them on goal, while Eastern got only one shot off that was blocked.
Sanchez took a game-high four shots while sophomore midfielder
John Jamison (Albuquerque, N.M./Sandia HS), Crosby, Hernandez and McManus all had three attempts apiece. Hernandez's two assists set a career-high and is tied for the most in a game in program history. He is the second Greyhound to achieve the mark this season following freshman forward
Ignacio Dicun (Amarillo, Texas/Tascosa HS) two-assist performance against Colorado-Colorado Springs on Sept. 7.
Gutierrez finished the day with seven saves to give him 42 for the year and moving him up to seventh and eighth on the career and season saves lists, respectively.
Elijah Madzikatire and Darius Strambler both took four shot attempts to pace LCU. Tristen Putnam (2-3-1) had four saves in the game.
Next up for ENMU is a trip to Canyon, Texas on Wednesday for a meeting with rival West Texas A&M at 6 p.m. MT.
For the latest information on Greyhound soccer, follow
@ENMUSports on Twitter and visit the official website of ENMU athletics at GoEasternAthletics.com.
