The University of the Southwest Men's Soccer team had a pair of home conference games this past week. They split the two games, losing a battle for first place with the University of Houston-Victoria on Thursday but bounced back to beat Huston Tillotson on Saturday. The Mustangs currently sit in second place in the conference standings at (6-1) in RRAC play behind only UHV. 
 
The UHV game was a hard-fought defensive battle that saw UHV score right before the end of the first half and stayed that way until the last minute when they were able to add one more as the Mustangs tried to even the score. The 2-0 loss was a tough loss to swallow but overall an impressive showing by the Mustangs. Head Coach Edgar Negrete said after the contest "I truly believe the expectation of the game really got to the players. I really think the boys went out there and played like they were scared to lose.  Which kept us from playing to our full potential. We knew that UHV is a top team and we wanted to go into the game and upset them. I don't think we did all that bad. We got scored on in the last two minutes of the first half and the last minute in the second half. I think as a team we need to do a better job at managing the game. We lost a soccer game. The world goes on. I know the boys were upset about losing our undefeated conference record but I told them they should not put their heads down. They need to pick their heads up and know that we live to play another day. It's the sport we play, you will lose a game and life will go on."
 
Against Huston Tillotson, who entered the contest (6-3-2) (3-2-2), it was another defensive battle for most of the contest. The game went to the half scoreless and didn't see a goal until the 75^th minute when Gael Navarrete was able to net a goal off of an assist by Angel Marban. Roughly five minutes later senior Dan Moreno had a free-kick from our side and drilled a ball through to Gabriel Neufeld who was able to get the ball past the goalie. The Mustangs continued their strong defensive play and won the contest 2-0. Coach Negrete spoke after the contest saying "I was extremely proud of the boys of today's game. We started off a little slow due to the aggressiveness that HT brought to play our boys. It was probably the most aggressive game that the boys have been in the whole year. We finished the first half and we made some adjustments that would help us in the second half. We decided to keep our heads and play the ball quicker and manage to play with the same aggressiveness and show HT that we were not intimidated by them. We started to open up the field and the boy's momentum started to build causing us to score a goal in the last 15 minutes of the second half. Which pumped the boys up and left them wanting to go for another goal. HT looked discouraged and we went after them. I told the boys it was our chance now and we were able to score another goal a few minutes later to close out the game 2-0. It was an exciting game and the boys put on a show and were glad we were able to come out victorious. We are now putting our whole attention to LSUA, a team who kept us away from hosting a playoff game at the end of the regular season, and the same team who eliminated us from the conference tournament and ended up winning it all last year. This game is personal to us and we are looking to do everything we can to come out on top and look to clinch a playoff spot for the conference. We are playing a tough LSUA team and we have to make sure we are ready for them or this team will punish us. Like I told the boys we are not the same team as last year and we have to believe it can get done." 
 
The Mustangs now sit at (6-5-1) overall and (6-1) in conference play and sit in 2^nd place in the Red River Athletic Conference. The contest against conference foe LSUA will take place this Thursday in Hobbs at 3:30 PM MST. They come into the matchup (5-4-2) and (3-1-2) in RRAC play.