The Denver men’s soccer team dominated visiting Houston Baptist on Friday, defeating the Huskies 6-0 before falling 2-0 to No. 8 New Mexico on Sunday afternoon.
On Friday, the Pioneers kicked off the scoring early, netting three goals in the first two minutes.
Junior forward Zach Bolden was on the finishing end of two of those goals, helping the Pioneers to set the tone on what would be a comfortable win.
“I think it was the start of the game [that was the key],” said head coach Bobby Muuss. “I was extremely excited the way the guys responded from a tough weekend last weekend. When you do that on a Friday night in conference play, and you can get other guys in the game, you can start preparing for Sunday.”
DU also received goals from senior defender Blake Shannon, senior midfielder Josh Wren, freshman midfielder Logan McHugh and junior midfielder Anees Abdulgasem. The goals for McHugh and Abdulgasem were the first of their respective collegiate careers.
The Pioneer defense limited the Huskies to six total shots, none of which were on target.
“We just came out flying that night,” said Bolden. “We were a little bit frustrated with the fact that we tied them the week before, so we just wanted a little bit of revenge.”
On Sunday, the Pioneers hosted No. 8 New Mexico at CIBER Field, where they eventually fell to the highly ranked Lobos, 2-0.
After playing to a scoreless draw at intermission, New Mexico scored in the 50th minute to take a lead they would not relinquish. Their second goal came in the 72nd minute off a misplay by the Pioneer defense.
“I don’t think we played with confidence today,” said Muuss. “Our big thing going into the game was protecting the ball and keeping the ball, but they executed their game plan better than we did. We lost a bit of composure and turned the ball over too many times.”
The loss was the second in a week to New Mexico for DU, with the first coming in Albuquerque in double overtime on Oct. 7. The then No. 5-ranked Lobos once again held the Pioneers scoreless, winning 1-0.
“We know them really well,” said Bolden. “We play them twice a year every year; we kind of consider them some of our rivals, so we’re not really intimidated by them at all. I just feel like they wanted it a little bit more than we did today. They just did the little things more than we did.”
With the win and the loss, the Pioneers now sit at 6-4-3 overall, sporting a 1-3-1 Mountain Pacific Sports Federation record. DU will next host San Jose State at 7:30 p.m. on Friday and Seattle at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday. San Jose State is currently 3-1-1 in the MPSF, while Seattle is 0-4-1.
