Hounds set school record for wins

Junior Emerson Rodrigues scored on a penalty kick 10 minutes into the second half, and Eastern New Mexico University set a season record for wins Tuesday with a 3-1 triumph over University Texas-Permian Basin.

Freshman Kal Herbert had a goal and an assist for the Greyhounds (9-2-1), who moved one win past the previous record of eight wins set by the 2007 squad. Eastern has five more games on its regular season schedule.

But it wasn’t an easy win against struggling Falcons squad.

“I think we end up suffering a little bit because we did not put the Falcons away in the first half,” ENMU Coach Harold Munoz said. “In the first half I think we had four breakaways, which we should have capitalized on, and we got one goal. Also in the last five seconds due to a lack of concentration they received a goal.”

The Falcons got on the board at the 44:56 mark of the first half on a Marcelo Andres goal.

Herbert, who got his fourth goal of the season in the first half, assisted on Mychael Contreras’ game-winner four minutes into the second half, and Rodrigues iced the match with his penalty kick.

The Hounds kept the Falcons (2-8-1) in their own zone for most of a physical second half — eight of the nine yellow cards were issued in the final 30 minutes of the contest.

Falcons coach Dennis Peterson said the team, which had a six-game losing streak coming in, had played a rough scheduled — most recently a 4-3 overtime loss to Incarnate Word in which the Falcons blew a 3-1 lead.

“We had a really tough conference match on Sunday,” UTPB coach Dennis Peterson said. “I’m not into making excuses because I don’t think they are necessary. I think that (loss) took a lot out of us. We came out a little lethargic.”

Greyhound freshman goalie goal Alistair Caldwell finished with two saves. The Greyhounds had 17 shots on goal and four corner kicks. Permian Basin, meanwhile, had 14 shots on goal, two corner kicks and six saves.