Brackets due out Sunday as state tourney looms

The high school state soccer brackets will be announced late Sunday afternoon by the New Mexico Activities Association.

Here are how metro-area districts finished as the regular season ended on Saturday:

BOYS: Atrisco Heritage last Saturday locked up District 1-5A’s title, with Cleveland, the defending state champion, finishing in second place.

La Cueva clinched the 2-5A crown on Saturday as the Bears dispatched West Mesa 4-0. But the Bears will open the postseason with some question marks. (See the story on Sunday’s sports cover of the Journal.)

The No. 1 seed is going to be undefeated Albuquerque High (18-0), which completed that perfect regular season Saturday, 2-1 over Sandia in a District 5-5A finale. Rio Grande was the runner-up to the Bulldogs in district.

Mayfield (19-1), which has won 18 straight since a late August setback to Cleveland, won District 3-5A. Hobbs was the 4-5A champion.

■ Moving into Class 4A, both St. Pius and Albuquerque Academy won their districts by multiple games over the second-place teams, Los Lunas and Hope Christian.

Bosque School and Sandia Prep had a terrific battle in District 2/1A-3A, but the Bobcats (8-0-2) edged the Sundevils (8-1-1).

GIRLS: Volcano Vista completed a sweep of Cibola in the District 1-5A season. The Hawks on Saturday beat the Cougars 1-0 on a first-half goal by sophomore Lauren Machuca. Volcano Vista also won the previous meeting 1-0, and the Hawks went through a tough league unbeaten at 8-0.

Volcano Vista finished the regular season 16-2 and could be the No. 1 playoff seed when the brackets come out Sunday.

But both Cibola and District 2-5A champion La Cueva, which ended a 15-2-1 regular season Saturday with a 10-0 win over West Mesa, will also be strongly considered for first-round byes.

So will District 5-5A champion Albuquerque High, which closed out a perfect, 10-0 league campaign Saturday with a 1-0 victory against second-place Sandia. The Bulldogs are 15-2-1 overall.

Carlsbad and Centennial are the other two 5A district champions, but their MaxPreps rating is lower than Volcano Vista, Cibola, La Cueva and AHS, and that may factor into how the top four seeds are chosen.

■ In Class 4A, Albuquerque Academy — in a crazy tiebreaker against Hope Christian — and St. Pius both won their respective districts.

For the Chargers, ultimately, the difference between them and runner-up Hope was a goal Del Norte scored against the Huskies on Thursday. That was the separation between the two.

Sandia Prep (19-1 overall) was 10-0 in District 2/1A-3A to win that league.

All three of those private schools are just about assured of getting byes in the first round.