AT UT-Permian Basin 10-16-14: (Live Stats) AT Eastern New Mexico 10-19-14: (Live Stats) Buffalo Soccer Game Notes CANYON, Texas – The West Texas A&M men's soccer team will look to get back to its winning ways this weekend as it begins a three-game road trip with matches at rival Eastern New Mexico and UT-Permian Basin. The Buffs will try to add to the win column again on Thursday, Oct. 16, as it travels to Odessa, Texas for a 7 p.m. matchup with the Falcons. WT will then get a rematch with the Greyhounds in Portales, N.M. on Sunday, Oct. 19, at 4 p.m. (CT).
LIVE COVERAGE: Live stats will be provided for both away matches this week. Links can be found on the top of the page or on www.GoBuffsGo.com via the men's soccer schedule page. Live scoring updates can also be found by following @wtathletics on Twitter.
CAREER 700th: Head coach
Butch Lauffer returned this fall for his 24th season at the helm of the Buffs. The Washington, D.C., native, holds a 279-125-31 all-time record in his tenure as the men's coach (1991-present). Including his 14 years as the head women's coach (1996-2009), Lauffer is 468-192-48 with the Buffs and Lady Buffs. On Sept. 12, 2014 at CSU-Pueblo, Lauffer coached his 700th career game for WT on the pitch (men and women combined), a 5-3 victory over the ThunderWolves.
BALANCED ATTACK: The Buffs have outscored their opponents 19-15 so far this season while nine different players have contributed to that goal total. Senior
Vitor Cardoso and sophomore
Chris Johnson lead the way with four goals each. Senior
Christopher Hutton follows next with three goals on the year while senior
Michael Williams and freshman
Axel Insulander have each tallied two. Also recording goals for WT are redshirt junior
Tre Norton, sophomores
Christian Suthers and
Gabe Williams and freshman
Alex Cervantes.
UT-PERMIAN BASIN AT A GLANCE: The Falcons of UTPB will enter Thursday night's contest against WT with a 1-8-1 overall record and 0-3 mark in Heartland Conference play. After playing to 3-3 draw with the University of the Southwest and defeating Adams State 2-1 on the road, the Falcons have dropped eight straight matches. Those losses have come at the hands of Colorado State-Pueblo, Wayland Baptist, Texas A&M-International (2x), Lubbock Christian (2x), Midwestern State, and St. Mary's.
Nathan Cotterell has been one of the only positives working for UTPB offensively so far this season. He leads the team in goals with five for 10 points and has produced nearly half of all the team's shots (45/101). The other three goals have come from Gary Willis (two) and Logan Sharp (one). The Falcons have been outscored on the year 26-9. Eric Beltran has started every match in goal and owns a 2.85 GAA and a .687 save percentage with 57 total saves.
The Buffs are undefeated against the Falcons in 12 meetings all-time, owning a perfect 12-0 record. The last meeting was a 8-0 rout of UTPB on Oct. 1, 2013 in Canyon.
EASTERN NEW MEXICO AT A GLANCE: The Greyhounds will head into Sunday's match with a 5-5-2 overall record. They began the season with a 0-1 loss to Adams State on the road before beating UC-Colorado Springs (3-1) and losing to Wayland Baptist (0-3) at home. ENMU then went 0-1-1 at the TAMUI Tournament before dropping two straight to St. Edward's and Newman. It would grab wins against Oklahoma Christian and University of the Southwest before playing to a draw against Lubbock Christian in its last match. Since defeating WT in Canyon last week, the Greyhounds have grabbed a 3-1 win over Dallas Baptist on the road.
Abayneh Crosby has led the way offensively for the Greyhounds this season as he has tallied a team-high four goals and eleven points. Ryan McManus, Gil Munoz, and John Jamison have also scored multiple goals while four other Greyhounds have tallied scores. James Gutierrez has started 10 of ENMU's 12 games so far this season and owns a 1.05 GAA and a .817 save percentage in 939 minutes between the pipes. He has tallied 49 saves and two shutouts with a 5-3-2 record while allowing 11 goals.
The Buffs are 13-6-2 all-time against the Greyhounds. The Buffs won the first matchup last season, a 1-0 overtime thriller in Canyon on Oct. 18, while they played to a 1-1 draw in Portales on Oct. 24. The Greyhounds took the first meeting earlier this season, 1-0, in Canyon on Oct. 8.
EASTERN NEW MEXICO REVISITED: WT suffered a tough loss on Wednesday night at The Pitch in Canyon, Texas at the hands of Eastern New Mexico, 1-0. After conceding a goal in the 40th minute, WT would be unable to create sufficient opportunities to get back into the game going 90 minutes with only two shots-on-goal. The Buffs fell to 6-4 on the season with the loss while the Greyhounds improved to 4-5-2.
WT led ENMU in total shots in the contest, 13-9, but would only place two attempts on target while the Greyhounds produced seven of their attempts on-goal. Sophomore keeper
Patrick Satorie fell to .500 now with a 4-4 record after picking up six saves and allowing one goal Wednesday. ENMU keeper James Gutierrez grabbed the win and improved to 4-3-2 after completing the shutout with two saves.
The Buffs dominated possession for much of the first frame of action in Wednesday's contest at The Pitch. WT was able to force five corner kicks in the first 15 minutes of play, the set being taken by both juniors
Johnny Oliver and
Austin Henderson.
The Greyhounds would then grab the lead off a bizarre goal at the 39:26 mark. John Jamison sent a strike in from 15 yards on the right side that appeared to be heading wide but proceeded to curve in to bounce off the right post past Satorie. The ball took a bounce seemingly parallel to the goal line before taking a quick spin into the left corner of the net just as it was heading past the left post. Jamison was assisted by Abayneh Crosby on what would be his second goal of the season.
With the loss, the Buffs also fell to 13-6-2 all-time against the rival Greyhounds.
MIDWESTERN STATE REVISITIED: Despite overcoming a two-goal deficit in the second half, the Buffs dropped a tough 3-2 decision in a double overtime thriller against regional rival No. 13 Midwestern State on Saturday night in Wichita Falls, Texas. Hutton and Johnson tallied second-half scores to send the game into overtime but the Buffs' late surge was not enough as the Mustangs grabbed the game-winner 40 seconds into the second extra period to improve to 8-1-2 on the season. With the loss, WT fell to 6-5 on the year.
WT lead in overall shots on the night, 15-14, while MSU held the slight advantage in shots-on-goal, 6-5. Satorie took the loss and dropped to a 4-5 record while MSU keeper Nick Petolick improved to 8-1-2 on the year. Both goalies finished with three saves on the night.
The home team received a break at the 36:02 mark in the first frame as Andrew Power sank a penalty goal for the 1-0 Mustang lead. Power was pulled down the play before inside the box by Hutton. It would be Power's 10th goal of the season.
It would take only two minutes and fifteen seconds into the second half for MSU to extend its lead to two goals. After a WT foul, Chase Robertson took the free kick chance for the Mustangs and found the net over Satorie from 25 yards out for his second score of the year.
WT would quickly respond to pull back within one as Hutton took a cross from the left wing from Insulander to net his third goal of the season at the 49:37 mark.
The Buffs would roll on with the momentum creating numerous chances in the ensuing minutes with great looks offensively by Johnson, Insulander and Cardoso, but neither could find the equalizer. Finally, the Buffs knotted the score late in the game in the 82nd minute off a goal by Johnson, his fourth of the season. He was assisted by sophomore defender
Thomas Vickers to send the game into extra time.
Despite numerous opportunities for the Buffs to grab the win in the first extra frame, WT would not be able to place in a goal. They tallied five shots and also went a man up after Albert Rodriguez was sent off with a red card in the 94th minute. Then 40 seconds into the second overtime period, the Mustangs received a free kick opportunity from 30 yards out and took advantage with the game-winning score off the foot of Paul Sunderland, his first score of the season.
WT now falls to 17-24-3 all-time against the Mustangs and have now lost the previous four meetings.
