The Kyyote's Howl

After today’s win over the Panthers of Prairie View A&M, Katie Dorman and Jessie Pettit talked about the match.  The two seniors spoke about today’s effort in a way that is a testament to the quality of the people the program produces, the class of the ladies, themselves, and the wisdom that experience brings.

Dorman talked about each game being a learning experience.

“We choose to improve after every game, to learn something and to move on, and play our next game better,” said Katie.  “I think we did that.  At half time, even though we were up four to zero, we found some things we wanted to correct, and we did that in the second half. I think we had to change our game, and adjust to the way they were playing.”

Dorman continued, speaking about the ball movement on the sides of the field that opened up the Panthers’ defense, which was looking to pack themselves in front of their goal.

“Our coaches are good at seeing what we need to work on and making us do it, and then making us successful’” she said.

Saying that the two wins made for a good weekend, but she was also looking toward the future.

“We came out with two wins.  We’re going to take that to the road.  We’ve got to be better on the road this year, compared to last year.”  She continued talking about going forward with three wins, “It’s kind of nice that we have three wins under our belts, but now we’ve got some competition in front of us.”

Then it was Jessie’s turn.  She was asked to give her thoughts about today’s game.

“It’s frustrating,” she began.  She paused looking for a way to describe the competition today in a respectful way.  Continueling, she said, “It’s difficult.  It was pretty frustrating in the first half.  This was a scrimmage.  Like Katie said, we tried to work on the things we need to do, instead of playing like really good teams.  But, it’s only practice, and it’s only going to make us better.”

Speaking about the Miners’ defense, which has yet to give up a goal this season, Jessie that the depth the team has has been a big help.  She said that last year, the Houston team was able to wear them down and when they finally got tired the Houston team was able to score on them.

“But, now we have subs, so I think that will help us a lot”, she said.

Jessie talked about the two girls , Gina Soto and Tori Martin, who were injured in today’s game.

“Yeah, those are our two best midfielders, right there.  It makes me a little bit nervous because those are hard positions to fill,” she said.  Like, everything else around it you can get a couple in and out, but those are pretty tough positions to fill.”

Some of you may have watched a prize fight that made you uneasy because one of the fighters was just taking a beating, and there just wasn’t any sense in letting it continue.  You get this sickening feeling.  The same kind of feeling you get seeing those abused dogs and cats in the commercial that Sarah McLachlan does that tugs at your heart’s strings.  That’s kind of what it was like watching the Miners dominate the Panthers of Prairie View A&M in the first half of today’s soccer match at University Field.

Miner goalkeeper, Sarah Dilling was able to knit herself a skirt today, to go with the bedazzled jean vest she made last Friday night.  She did have to put the needles down one time, when the ball chanced to come in the general direction of the UTEP goal.  Not close enough to register as a save, however.

Meanwhile, the Miners were playing near flawless soccer on the other end of the field.  The Miners controlled the ball on offense, toying with the Prairie View defenders.  When the Panthers managed to get their feet on the ball, they were treated like they had run into The Artful Dodger’s gang of pickpockets.  A quick brush up against a Miner, and the Prairie View player would be left looking around, wondering what had happened, and where the ball had gone.

Long passes were invariably gotten to first by a Miner.  They resulted in a shot, if the pass was into the Prairie View end of the field, or a quick return to action in the Prairie View end if it happened to venture into the Miners end.

The Pathers tried to pack their defense, in what Coach Cross termed a “bunker defense”.  But the Miners used ball control, and sharp passes to open up their defense like a can of sardines.

The Miners took 10 shots in the first half.  The Panther’s goalkeeper was able to stop 3 of them.  The Miners put three shots into the Panther’s net, and a fourth goal bounced off of a Prairie View player for a fourth Miner goal.  Yep, that’s how bad it was for Prairie View A&M, that first half.

The second half was much like the first half, except the scoring was replaced by some chippy play, and fouls, including a Yellow card issued to Prairie View’s Yosselyn Aguilar when she slid into Gina Soto’s ankle.  Soto was carried off of the field, and Coach Cross said he would have to wait to see the x-rays before he knew to what extent the damage may be.  Tori Martin also had to leave the field due to an injury, but Coach Cross felt a little more optimistic about her.

When the game was over the Miners had a 4-0 victory.  There record so far is three wins, and no defeats or ties.  The Miners’ defense has yet to allow a single goal to be scored on them.

The Miners will take their show on the road next week to play Sam Houston State and Texas State.

The Houston Baptist Huskies must have felt like they walked right into an ambush.  The Miners were firing machine guns, and the Huskies had a single slingshot.  I don’t mean any disrespect to the Huskies, but they were flat out no match for the Miners.  The Houston Baptist goalkeeper probably developed a nervous twitch in the 90 minute span of tonight’s  game.  In the first half, the Miners took 14 shots at the goal, and had three corner kicks.  The Huskies goalkeeper made five saves but allowed two goals.

With just a little less than 28 minutes gone, Brittany Kindzierski took a shot that was blocked, but Amanda Pak was there to get the rebound and put it away.  Less than two minutes later, Lauren Katada got her first goal as a Miner on a penalty kick.

At the other end of the field, Miners goalkeeper, Sarah Dilling gave herself a pedi, made two saves of the three shots the Huskies took, and worked a crossword puzzle.

The second half was even tougher for the Huskies.  The Miners were having things their way, substituting new legs into the game, and the Houston Baptist team was losing steam.  Sarah Dilling  manicured her fingernails, and bedazzled a jean vest, so with 30 minutes left in the game, Chandra Morden relieved her.

In the second half, the Miners took 15 shots to the Huskies 1.  The highlight of the game was Amanda Pak’s bicycle kick to give her her second goal in the game, and as a Miner, and made the score 3-0.  With 86 minutes and 40 seconds gone, Gina Soto put the fourth goal on the scoreboard to finish the scoring for the night.

If I have made it sound like it was a one sided affair, it’s because it was.

I asked Coach Cross what he could take from this game.

“It showed us today that we had an awesome team, because it was a team effort.  I think in the first half, when we made substitutions is when the goals started to happen.  Three of the four goals were from freshmen.  It shows we have youth.  It showed we have a full team.  It was a great team effort, today.  I think everybody really contributed well, today,” said the smiling coach.

Defensively, his team was spectacular.

“Yeah, we shut them down, defensively,” said Coach Cross.  “That’s a credit to the defense, and I think we know, in any sport, whether it’s baseball, football, soccer, defense wins championships.  You’ve got to be strong in the back.”

One thing that becomes very apparent, very quickly, is that these players are a tight group, and they not only play as a team, they win as a team.  When you talk with the players that score the goals, to a girl, they make it clear that the other girls had as much or more to do with scoring the goal as they did.

Sunday, at 1:00 PM the Miners will see what they can do against the Lady Panthers of Prairie View A&M.  The New Mexico State Aggies beat them 4-0 in Las Cruces Friday night.

UTEP’s senior midfielder, Katie Dorman, began her career at UTEP as a walk on.  But, my oh my, has she turned out to be quite a gold nugget picked up from the Franklin Mountains.  Last year, the junior led the Miners in points, and tied for the team lead in goals scored, and assists, and tied for the lead in goals in Conference USA.

On Wednesday, I got a chance to talk with her about the opening match of the season against the Aggies, last Friday.

I asked her what she was able to take away from that match.

“You know, after our game against the Aggies, it made it obvious what we needed to work on’” said Dorman.  “We do have some room to grow.  A lot of things we plan on improving.  It’s just so that our next games we just get better from here.  Every game we learn something, and we get better.  We learn something and we get better, so that we are ready for conference when we get there.”

I asked her what needs to be worked on.

“Personally, I want to work on my attack.  I want to be a dynamic threat.  That’s what I’m working on.  As a team, we want to work on attacking as a unit.  Working together.  Getting together and attacking together and not just giving one person the ball and saying, go get it.”

Katie said that there were some positives to take from that first game.

“It’s always nerve racking, and exciting going into your first game, and we won.  Even though it wasn’t our best game ever.  But, Tess Hall came in huge for us with two free kick goals, and we won.  That’s always what we’re going for, no matter what it looks like.  We were able to pull it off.  That’s what’s important.  We have a freshman goalie, and she didn’t let any goals in.  Our defense worked together and still kept a zero on the scoreboard.”

She really cut to the chase.  The Miners won.  That is what is important to take from that first game, first.  Then, there are the things to work on, and the things to feel good about.  But, the best feeling is getting that win.

A century or so ago the shots came from men like Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett, and John Wesley Hardin.  Southern New Mexico and Far West Texas were the Wild West.  This weekend, shooters won’t be wearing sixguns and  holsters.  They will be wearing shorts and shin guards.  The shots will come from the soccer players from UTEP, NMSU, Houston Baptist, and Prairie View A&M.

The Second Annual Border Bash gets underway at 7 PM Friday, when the Miners host the Huskies of Houston Baptist, and the Aggies take on the Lady Panthers of Prairie View A&M in Las Cruces.  Then, on Sunday, Prairie View will come down I-10 and play the Miners, and the Huskies will make the short trip up to Las Cruces to play the Aggies.

The Aggies will be looking for their first win after losing their first two games.  Last Friday, the NMSU team lost to the Miners 0-2 in front of a record setting home crowd at University Field on the UTEP campus, and then picked up their second loss on Sunday, toppled by Texas Tech 0-1.

The Miners will be looking to smooth out some of the rough spots they saw in the first game of the season.  Although the Miners dominated the play throughout the match, it wasn’t until late in the game that they were able to find the net.

Coach Kevin Cross said, “There were a lot of lessons to be learned.  The first half we felt that we started slow, and the second half we hit our gear.  So, that’s one lesson we definitely need to learn.  We felt that our midfield play wasn’t what it needed to be in the first half and got it going in the second half.  So, those are two real big lessons we’re working on this week, and we hope to start with this Friday.”

On the positive side, he said, “Well, the way they responded in the second half I would say was a huge positive.  I think they were nervous, and tight in the first half.  It seemed like expectations were high, with all of the fans, and they didn’t want to let anyone down, I think they were a bit tight.  But, the way they responded at halftime, and played the second half, was incredible.”

Coach Cross also liked the way his freshman goalkeeper, Sarah Dilling, played in her first start at UTEP.  Of his decision to start the young lady from Calgary, Coach Cross had this to say, “Our senior goalkeeper, unfortunately has a sports hernia.  She’s really been hurting.  She hurt herself in training camp, and Sarah has really been playing well.”

I asked Coach Cross if he concentrated more on preparing for the play of opposing teams, or playing the Miners’ game.

“We play our game, but we keep in mind what other teams play.  So, if we’re in a specific formation, and the other team’s in a different formation, we’ve got to know the strengths and weaknesses of what they’re doing, and the strengths and weaknesses of what we’re doing, and how we’re going to beat it,” he said.

The Friday night game is “Orange Night Out”.  Wear orange and get in to see the match free.  You can’t beat that with a stick.  The Sunday game is “Take A Kid To A Game Day”.  Kids get in free to the Sunday game with the paid admission of an adult.  The action has gotten underway for the Miners soccer team, and this weekend the team makes it easy to join the fun.  Be there when the shooting starts, and help cheer the Miners to victory.