NMMI Sports Press
The Colt Varsity Soccer team played their first home game of the season, falling to the visiting Lovington Wildcats 3-0 in what was a close game right up until the final few minutes.
The Wildcats scored a goal early in the first half to make the score 1-0 and NMMI junior goalkeeper Carlos Corona and the Colt defense kept it that way until Lovington managed a couple late goals to put the game out of reach.
After the contest, a hopeful head coach John Barbour said he understands that his players are frustrated with the 1-5-1 record, but he sees improvement with each game and knows what the Colts need to work on.
“We’re turning the ball over way too much, but tonight there were a lot of moments that were much better,” he said. “We started to find gaps and we started to recognize how to play through into those spaces. We had some good attacking moments that we haven’t seen in other games.”
Barbour praised his defense for keeping the game close until the end, but said his squad can’t keep allowing so many opportunities to the opposing offense.
“Our defense is pretty good, but we give them so many looks at the goal that eventually they’re going to go in,” he said. “Soccer is a game of possession and territory. If you can maintain possession and move your troops through the opposing team’s territory, you’ll have success. But when you keep turning it over, it makes it really difficult.”
The Colts lack of offense is their biggest shortcoming and Barbour plans to focus on that before the next match.
“When we have opportunities in front of goal, we have to finish,” said Barbour. “We had probably three or four good looks and we couldn’t put the ball on frame.”
The Colts have plenty of soccer left to play and Barbour knows encouragement is key until the kids can start seeing Ws on paper.
“You just stand by them, because we’re going to get better each time out, they just have to see it,” Barbour said. “But they won’t recognize the improvement until they can see those results, so we’ve got to find a way to manufacture some wins. I think we’ll get there, we just have to keep plugging away.”
The Colts have the weekend off before facing the Rockets at 4 p.m. Tuesday at Goddard High School in Roswell. NMMI fell to the Rockets 5-0 last weekend at the Coyote Classic.