A sweep: All six No. 1 playoff seeds from Albuquerque
La Cueva’s boys and girls both were stamped with No. 1 seeds for the Class 6A state soccer tournament, which begins on has first-round games on Friday and Saturday.
Boys
Defending state champion Albuquerque High was slotted right behind La Cueva, with Volcano Vista and Sandia also earning first-round byes. The quarterfinals are Nov. 3.
No. 9 Atrisco Heritage (Gadsden) and No. 11 Eldorado (Hobbs) face lengthy road trips in the first round. There also is an extremely tantalizing first-rounder between No. 7 Valley — the Vikings have the rare distinction of beating No. 1 La Cueva, No. 2 AHS and No. 3 Volcano Vista this season — and 10th-seeded Cibola.
Several metro coaches expressed shock that Centennial received a bid ahead of Rio Rancho. The Hawks were the 12th and final team into the 6A field.
Albuquerque Academy has the No. 1 seed in Class 5A as the Chargers attempt to go back-toback. Roswell, Capital and Chaparral round out the top four seeds. In the first round, No. 7 St. Pius plays No. 10 Valencia.
Hope Christian, coming off its first district championship since 1991, according to coach Steve Kokulis, has the No. 1 seed in Class 1A-4A.
“It’s been great for their confidence and a much-needed boost for the program,” Kokulis said Sunday. “We’ve fought hard all season long.”
Bosque School is seeded fourth, and for the Bobcats, this ensures that they will go a full 21 days between games, since their regular season ended on Oct. 13. Their next game is Nov. 3.
Sandia Prep is No. 7, East Mountain No. 9 and Bernalillo is No. 11.
Girls
After La Cueva, defending state champ Cibola, Cleveland and Hobbs had top-four seeds in 6A.
The first round will feature two all-Albuquerque matchups, with No. 8 AHS hosting No. 9 Sandia, and fifth-seeded Eldorado meeting No. 12 Volcano Vista.
Once again, the top four teams from District 1-6A qualified into the playoffs, and Cibola, Cleveland and No. 6 Rio Rancho are all on the bottom half of the bracket. This year, District 2-6A also got four teams into the field: La Cueva, Eldorado, Sandia and Clovis.
St. Pius’ 2-1 victory on Saturday over Albuquerque Academy might have been a state title game preview, since the Sartans and Chargers had the top two seeds in Class 5A.
Farmington and Los Alamos also have first-round byes. Also making the field were Los Lunas at No. 8 and Valencia at No. 10.
Los Lunas and Valencia both made the 5A field, the Tigers at No. 8 and the Jaguars at No. 10.
Sandia Prep’s dominant girls were an easy choice a top seed in Class 1A-4A. The Sundevils (18-11) haven’t surrendered a goal since Sept. 9, over six weeks ago. Their only loss was to St. Pius.
Hope, last year’s state champion, was seeded No. 2, followed by St. Michael’s and Socorro.
Bosque School earned a 5 seed, Moriarty an 8 seed and Bernalillo was seeded 11th.
It is believed that Bernalillo had never before qualified both its boys and girls for state in the same season.