Horsemen on a roll after rough start
Team overcoming roster setbacks shuts out Questa, sets up Saturday match for first place
Mike Feldewert and the St. Michael’s Horsemen had plans for the 2017 season — big plans.
A district title, a high seed for the Class 1A/4A State Boys Soccer Tournament and maybe more.
But Feldewert knows all about those grand designs.
“Nothing ever goes as planned,” said the fourth-year St. Michael’s head coach.
The team the Horsemen thought they’d have this season evaporated when several players were dismissed by the school in January. Then came the usual spate of early-season injuries that has plagued the program for the past couple of years. So long, veteran-loaded team. Hello, reboot. Sometimes, hitting the reset button happens to be the right one to push, and the Horsemen are providing a stout example. Thanks to the contribution of underclassmen and the relatively good health of senior center fullback Sam Baca, St. Michael’s finds itself 5-4-2 on the season, and 2-1 in District 2-1A/4A play after a 6-0 win Tuesday over Questa at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex. The win sets up a Saturday tilt at defending state champion Santa Fe Prep with the top spot in the district on the line.
It’s a good place to be, considering where the Horsemen were to start the year. They had
to dip into their junior varsity team to find replacements for the lost varsity veterans, and the early part of the preseason practice was rough — especially on offense.
“At first, it was very tedious,” Baca said. “Me and a few other seniors had a rough time because we had the touch [on shots] last year. It was all about getting the touch, and then this year was all about getting us into the best position possible for state and go far.
“Then, this year, we’re having to learn how to finish [shots] again.”
So imagine the looks on the sideline when senior forward Graham Gesten fractured his knee cap during a 3-1 loss Aug. 23 to Santa Fe High. Gone was last year’s leading goal scorer for the regular season, and the need to find somebody to fill the void became even more acute.
That role fell to sophomore Esteban Rigales, who admitted he wasn’t expecting it.
“It’s made me more passionate for the game,” Rigales said. “It’s made me want to work a lot harder.”
Rigales is the leading scorer for St. Michael’s, with seven goals on the season, and he has chipped in with six assists for a total of 20 points on the season. But contributions have come from everywhere, whether it was junior Justice Johnson scoring a hat trick in a six-minute span during a 5-0 win over Portales on Sept. 16, or the strong defensive effort from sophomore Berkley Reynolds, junior Hayden Lee and senior Wyatt Hoyle in a 1-all tie Sept. 14 against Albuquerque Bosque School.
The tie came on the heels of a disappointing 3-2 district loss to Monte del Sol three days before, in which the Dragons took advantage of a pair of penalty kicks to pull off the win. Baca said the practices after the loss were intense, but rewarding.
“I take that [match] as a win,” Baca said. “Especially considering I didn’t play that day.”
Baca returned for the Portales match, and he has been a welcome sight on the pitch for the Horsemen. He prefers to be a forward, but accepted the role in the back line last year, seeing a need for a strong leader on defense. However, he only played in four matches in 2016 because of injuries, including a season-ending broken clavicle in October.
“It was a big step back,” Baca said. “I lost my touch and everything, I kinda had to start all over again.”
Baca has only missed two matches this year, and Feldewert sees the leadership he and Lee bring to a defense that allowed just one goal in the past four matches. The shutout against the Wildcats was the third straight proffered by the Horsemen.
Feldewert said Baca’s sacrifice cannot be underscored.
“He saw that, if we were going to win last year, he had to be at center [fullback] for us,” Feldewert said. “Then he gets hurt, but things haven’t changed. We still need somebody who has some speed but can be that physical presence in that back line to deal with difficult situations.”
The Horsemen have dealt with difficult situations throughout the season, but the one quality Feldewert never saw lacking was the effort the team put in practice.
“I don’t have to worry about this group working hard,” Feldewert said. “I tell them that all the time. And I don’t have to worry about them playing hard every game. We just have to learn how to avoid mistakes. In our losses, we can all pinpoint mistakes we made, and that’s a learning process.”
Sometimes, the best plans are the ones that were never made in the first place.