Los Alamos bests St. Pius in double overtime
BERNALILLO — Throughout the second half and overtime of a tied Class 5A State Girls Soccer Tournament quarterfinal against third-seeded Albuquerque St. Pius X, the Los Alamos girls soccer team kept threatening and attacking, often coming up just short of taking its first lead.
Perrsistence finally paid off, and the Lady Hilltoppers forced their way into the 5A semifinals when junior Alix Hailey scored the winning goal during a chaotic sequence with just two minutes left in the second overtime for a 3-2 win at Bernalillo Soccer Complex on Thursday morning. Hailey scored her second goal of the match on a rebound after a shot by teammate Alyssa Parker forced St. Pius goalkeeper Kassandra Ascevez out of position.
Los Alamos will play No. 2 seed Aztec at 10 a.m. Friday on Field 8.
“My teammate Alyssa had a great shot and when it bounced out, I just went for it and tried to do my best to get it in,” Hailey said. “I knew my teammates were following up, so even if I didn’t score they would have me.”
It was one of many sequences in which the Lady Hilltoppers (16-5-1) had the Lady Sartans (11-5-1) on their heels down the stretch. As Los Alamos huddled prior to the second overtime, head coach Ann Cernicek sensed the end was near, telling her team, “You guys, they’re barely holding on.”
As it turns out, Cernicek’s intuition was correct.
“This team continues to create, create, create,” Cernicek said. “At some point, something has to give because we really did have some nice opportunities. This group knows how to score, they know how to win. I felt like we still had a lot of energy left. And I think that might have helped us a little bit against St. Pius.”
The victory was an upset in seeding only. Los Alamos defeated St. Pius 2-1 in the team’s first meeting on Aug. 29.
“After we played them earlier this season, we definitely knew what we were going against, but we knew they were going to be harder and tougher so we just had to just stick with it,” Hailey said. “After they got that first goal, we had to keep playing. It was tougher than we thought.”
It was an uphill struggle from the start for Los Alamos. Lady Sartan Miranda Hart, who had 27 goals during the regular season, gave the Sartans a shockingly quick 1-0 advantage when she scored from approximately 25 yards out in the second minute. It was the type of goal that could have sapped the Lady Hilltoppers’ momentum, but they remained undaunted.
“We fought back before from being down, so that didn’t bother me because I know that they know how to come back and win games,” Cernicek said.
Alissia Haagenstad, whose playmaking was key for Los Alamos throughout the match, curved a shot past Ascevez in the 19th minute to tie the score at 1-all. St. Pius took a 2-1 lead when Hart scored on the rebound of an Emma Donlin miss to cap an entertaining opening half that saw both teams on the attack throughout.
Los Alamos tied the score early in the second half when Hailey punched the ball in the net after a Haagenstad shot was deflected. Cernicek credited her team’s conditioning for its relentless approach in the latter portion of the game.
“I think they got a little more fatigued than we did today,” she said. “This team is in really good shape. We’ve had refs this year tell us this is the fittest girls team they’ve ever seen. And we see it in practice. I think our fitness really paid off for us today.”