St. c s girl advance in sta e tourney
Senior starts day on cross-country team, finishes with two goals, win
Justice Johnson was on the run Saturday. The St. Michael’s senior began the day running in the District 2-3A cross-country meet in Las Vegas, N.M., helping the Horsemen to a third-place finish. Johnson had no time to celebrate — he had a Class 1A/3A State Boys Soccer Tournament match in Santa Fe calling him.
“I don’t know what place I got,” Johnson said. “I was too tired to look. It was exhausting. That might be one of the hardest courses I ever ran. It was rough.”
Johnson made it to Christian Brothers Athletic Complex a half-hour before the sixth-seeded Horsemen took on No. 11 Santa Fe Prep in an openinground match, then kept flying around the field with great results. Johnson almost had a hat trick against the Blue Griffins, but settled for two goals and an assist as St. Michael’s roared into next weekend’s 1A/3A semifinal with a 5-0 win.
The Horsemen (13-7-1) head to the Bernalillo Soccer Complex to play No. 3 Monte del Sol on Wednesday for a spot in the semifinals, and it could be the start of a long week — much less a long day — for Johnson. St. Michael’s could play three matches in three days if it gets to the finals, then Johnson will stick around the Albuquerque metro area as the Horsemen run in the Class 3A State Cross-Country Championship at Rio Rancho High School.
Johnson isn’t thinking about that, though. He was busy enjoying the first state tournament win for the Horsemen since beating Rehoboth 5-3 in the opening round of the 2011 tournament.
“This was great,” Johnson said. “I loved the atmosphere here. People came out and Prep was good sports. They weren’t talking bad or anything. It was a good, fun game.”
It took 10 minutes before St. Michael’s opened the scoring when senior goalkeeper Isaiah Vigil found senior midfielder Berkeley Reynolds streaking down the right sideline and boomed a perfect pass to him. Reynolds flashed past Prep goalkeeper Xander Huasko and found an open net.
Not more than a minute later, the Blue Griffins made a crucial error when Huasko picked up a pass the Prep defense kicked back to him in the penalty box. That’s a no-no, and the referee rewarded the St. Michael’s with an indirect kick in the penalty box.
Horsemen senior midfielder Wesley Graham tapped it to Johnson, who bounced his kick to the left of Huasko and off his hands into the lower right net for a 2-0 lead.
What impressed St. Michael’s head coach Mike Feldewert were the years of experience his players have together.
“Those were all seniors,” Feldewert said. “They stepped up big today. Obviously, Justice gets two goals and an assist. Berkeley gets two goals and an assist. But you look across the board. [Defender] Hayden Lee was solid as our center back after playing a football game [on Friday]. Christian [Farrar] had a really strong game in the air — he was going up and being our physical guy that we need. And Isaiah, he made a couple of good saves and took advantage of a situation he saw and got the ball over the top to Berkeley.”
Reynolds’ second goal, however, came at the expense of Johnson’s third goal. Johnson was on a breakaway down the left sideline and fired the ball to the left of Huasko, who got a hand on it to slow it down on its path toward the lower right corner. In swooped Reynolds to make a sliding tap of the ball for a 3-0 lead in the 21st minute.
“It was just a clean effort,” Johnson said.
It will take a similar effort by the Horsemen next week against Monte del Sol, a team they know well since the two teams played to a 1-1 tie Sept. 7. In fact, St. Michael’s has played the four teams on its side of the bracket. If the Horsemen beat the Dragons, they play District 2-1A/3A foes Albuquerque Bosque School or Las Vegas Robertson in the semifinals.
So much for needing a scouting report.
“It makes it easy,” Feldewert said. “I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not. You get to the state tournament, and you feel like you want to play teams you haven’t seen. But it makes it easier knowing what we’re up against from here on out.”