Defending champ Cibola romps
Two-time defending state champion Cibola started its charge for a third blue straight Class 6A blue trophy on its front foot.
The fifth-seeded Cougars (15-4) scored four first-half goals and dispatched No. 12 Rio Rancho 4-0 on Friday at the APS Soccer Complex.
“We were late in the season finding ourselves,” Cibola coach Gary Zink said. “They had a really good week of practice and played exactly how they were practicing all week, very assertive.”
The Cougars won a free kick directly off the opening kickoff. The resultant shot clanged off the crossbar, and New Mexico commit Lexi Baca stabbed home the rebound. She added a second goal just two minutes later. The Cougars switched fields before Baca latched onto a cross. A quick turn gave her all the space needed to double the Cibola advantage with a near post drive.
“In warmups we were all connecting passes, finishing … we came ready to play,” Baca said. “We wanted to make a statement and show everyone that we didn’t get the seeding we wanted but we made the best of it.”
Baca’s slip pass got Jaylan Romero behind the Ram defense in the 20th minutes. Romero blasted a shot far post from a tight angle. Baca completed the hat trick in the 36th, with an incisive turn freeing her for a thumping low finish.
Rio Rancho (6-12-3) had few clean looks at goal or spells of possession. Cibola’s goalie didn’t touch the ball until the 18th minute, and she didn’t need her hands until the 29th, saving comfortably on the first Rams shot.
A rock-hard turf on a cold night meant the ball was off the carpet often. The bouncing ball was difficult to control. But Cibola was content to keep the ball wide and probe the Rams’ back line with vertical passes.
“They came out really well and are really playing their best soccer right now. I have to congratulate them,” Rio Rancho coach Uwe Balzis said. “No district (1-6A) in the entire state has the competitiveness that we do on the girls side.” — Noah Seligman
ELDORADO 2, ABQ. HIGH 0: Good fortune, Eldorado coach Andrew Wiese said, has been avoiding his Eagles with fierce tenacity.
On Friday afternoon, on the most important day of the season, that pesky gate swung the other direction for a change.
“We’ve been really close all year to winning games,” Wiese said. “We haven’t had the bounces go our way.”
A 17th-minute shot by Eagles junior defender Hannah Dahl somehow — and fortuitously, for Eldorado — slipped through Albuquerque High goalkeeper Joanna Finley and into the goal, and that would stand up as the difference for No. 10 Eldorado iin the first round of the 6A playoffs at Bulldog City.
Eldorado (9-9-1) advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals to face No. 2 seed Cleveland.
“The girls came out with a different level of focus and intensity today,” said Wiese.
From the right wing, Dahl fired a shot toward Finley, which was misplayed into the goal.
“It was really weird,” Dahl said. “She almost had it, but she knocked it in.”
That, interim coach Sara Torrez said, was part of a first half in which her Bulldogs were in “panic mode,” she said.
“We completely dominated the second half,” Torrez added.
That was largely true, with one notable exception — a 25-yard blast by Eagles freshman Lorelei Mauldin in the 58th minute that gave Eldorado a two-goal cushion.
“I could not be more proud,” said Torrez, who has been running the team this season after head coach Natasha Lee had back surgery at the start of the season. Lee missed nearly every game, although she was with the team Friday.
No. 7 seed AHS (15-4) had won 11 straight before Friday’s setback.
Eldorado lost 3-1 to Cleveland in the early-season metro tournament.
“I think having that win (today) and having a good game is helpful going into that (rematch),” Eldorado goalkeeper Arwyn Lewis said. “We’re gonna play better together.” — James Yodice
HOPE CHRISTIAN 10, NAVAJO PREP 0: At Hope, Hailey Gonzales scored three goals in a 22-minute span to lead the No. 5 Huskies (11-10) in Class 1A/4A first-round action. No. 12 Navajo Prep fell to 6-11-2.
Navajo Prep played a high-line defense that forced Hope Christian offside multiple times and made possession of the ball a struggle, something that coach Kristal Coker said the team will work on before its Thursday quarterfinal.
LOS LUNAS 7, BLOOMFIELD 1: In Los Lunas, Kylie Spangler had three goals and an assist, including the game’s first score in the third minute as the No. 7 Tigers (146-1) were off and running to next week’s 5A quarters.