Greyhound women claim home soccer finale

PORTALES - As the final stretch comes for Lone Star Conference women's soccer, every opportunity matters. Even the ones you've got to shrug your shoulders about receiving.

A late-game scuffle turned fortuitous for Eastern New Mexico University, and Mirka Zamarripa ended the team's three-week scoring drought with Texas Permian Basin down a man for a 1-0 victory Sunday at Greyhound Stadium.

The win gave the Greyhounds (3-7-4, 2-4-2) a desperately-needed boost in the standings for sole possession of fifth place in the LSC field.

With 6:42 to play, the Falcons' Hannah Saylor was called for a foul on a play where she and ENMU's Ariel Lopez tumbled onto the two-tone turf. Lopez shoved Saylor back to the turf, and might have connected on a punch had Zamarripa not been right there to intervene in the scuffle.

Saylor was issued a red card, leaving her ejected and the Falcons down a man the rest of the day.

Lopez, likely due to Zamarripa's intervention, received only a yellow card and was allowed to continue. Just 93 seconds later, Lopez threaded a perfect through pass from the right side and Zamarripa buried it.

Falcons coach Lindsey Garcia said the Greyhounds deserved credit for playing tough defense all day, but felt the late call was probably too much to overcome.

"I think it should have been two red cards," Garcia said. "It's common practice when a fight breaks out, especially when punches are thrown. We went down to 10 men, and that was huge. The opportunity was there for them, and they executed."

Greyhound coach Ryan Spence didn't think Garcia's argument was without merit.

"There probably should have been (two red cards)," Spence said. "I guess what the referee saw is (because Saylor committed the initial foul and both players were in the scuffle) they did two things to our one."

Zamarripa's goal ended a streak of five consecutive scoreless games. Between the last goal in ENMU's 2-0 Sept. 24 win against Texas Woman's and Zamarripa's tally, the team went scoreless for 531:41 without a tally.

But, you always have a chance if the other team's got a goose egg too. In their last five home games, the Greyhounds have allowed one goal with Alejandro Camarillo posting four shutouts.

"I come from a defensive program," said Spence, a former Midwestern State player with assistant coach time at MSU and Texas A&M-International. "About eight games in, I realized we needed to simplify things. They're covering each other (defensively) now. We'd say, 'She's manned up, she's OK.' Now they're covering each other.

"One corner (kick) and one shot on goal (against us). It's hard to lose a game when you only allow one chance."

The Greyhounds had five shots on goal, led by Kaitlyn Caro's two, and 10 corner kicks.

The regular season ends Oct. 29 in the seven-team field, with playoff seeds going to the top six conference points earners and first-round byes to the top two finishers. Teams receive three conference points for a win and one point for a tie in LSC games.

The Greyhounds are fifth, with eight conference points, and have four road games to eliminate a five-point deficit against fourth-place Texas A&M-Commerce. Spence said a key motivation to move up in the standings is that the third and fourth seeds will host the sixth and fifth seeds, respectively, in the first round.

It's not impossible, but getting ties instead of wins the last few weeks makes the path more difficult. Had the Greyhounds managed 1-0 wins instead of scoreless ties against West Texas A&M and Midwestern State, they'd still be in fifth place. However, they'd be one point out of third place and two points out of second.

The Falcons (4-7-3, 1-5-2) remain seventh in the LSC standings with three conference points, two behind Texas Woman's. They visit Angelo State Wednesday before starting a three-game homestand.