Finishing a (giant-) killer week

Cleveland has cooled off two red-hot teams

RIO RANCHO — Cleveland’s girls soccer team just made district a bit more interesting.

Just three days removed from handing previously unbeaten Cibola its first loss, the Storm halted Volcano Vista’s 10-game winning streak with a 2-1 victory at Thunderbolt Stadium on Saturday morning.

Cleveland coach Greg Rusk, while happy with the victories this week, knows any team in this district can beat any other on a given day.

“(The wins) were nice, but these were our home games,” Rusk said. “We still have to go to their places, and those are tough places to play.”

Cleveland (10-4), a state runner-up last season, avenged a 4-1 loss to the Hawks from last month’s metro tournament. That final score belied the game’s tightness the first 60 minutes.

Just like Wednesday’s win over the Cougars, the host Storm grabbed the lead early, with “early” the operative word.

Just 62 seconds into the match, the Hawks (11-2) turned the ball over inside their 18-yard box, leading to Madyson Barela’s left-footed tally into the right corner of the net.

“It was just a miscommunication in the back, and unfortunately, they capitalized on our mistake,” said Volcano Vista coach Samantha Lucero.

Nine minutes later, the visiting Hawks knotted the game with a pinpoint pass from Patience Trujillo to Natalia Bruciaga, who delivered an equally pinpoint shot.

Trujillo one-timed a bouncing loose ball over the defense to Bruciaga, who lobbed a short shot off one bounce over Cleveland goalie Mackenzie Douglas’ head.

The score remained deadlocked until the 23rd minute when Cleveland, again, cashed in on a defensive breakdown.

This time, sophomore forward Alexis Nuñez picked up an errant pass deep in the Volcano Vista zone and chipped a shot that deflected off the hands of Hawks goalkeeper Vanessa Guevara. The dribbling shot had just enough steam to find the back of the net.

“The whole first half was a really good soccer game,” Rusk said. “The second half was us hanging on while they pressured us.”

Most of the second half was spent in Cleveland’s defensive zone as the Storm survived a bullet of a shot from Devyn Moya that hit the crossbar, and several corner kicks.

Over the final 40 minutes, Cleveland managed just one shot on goal.

“It’s hard to be frustrated when we played well,” Lucero said. “They capitalized on our mistakes, and we did not capitalize on theirs.”