Lady Horsemen upset Abq. Bosque
6 St. Mike’s 3 3 Abq. Bosque 1
SANTA ANA PUEBLO — St. Michael’s knew that its sixth seed was nothing but a number. The Lady Horseman scored the biggest upset in the quarterfinals of the Class 1A/3A girls bracket, as they held off No. 3 Albuquerque Bosque School for a 3-2 victory Wednesday at the New Mexico Soccer Tournament Complex.
Only, it wasn’t that much of an upset in the mind of St. Michael’s. After all, the team was coming off a 2-1 win over the Bobcats on Oct. 16 that split the season series between the two District 2-1A/3A foes at 1-all.
“We were absolutely confident coming in,” said St. Michael’s head coach Anthony Cassaro. “The seeding thing is totally random. You deal with what you got, and you just focus on what you do well.”
St. Michael’s will face No. 2 Socorro at 10 a.m. Thursday on Field 10.
The Lady Horsemen (15-6-1) did plenty well in taking a 2-0 lead early in the second half on the strength of goals from Grace Sandoval and Olivia Farrar. However, the Lady Bobcats (12-5-1) roared back to tie the match to set up a tense ending.
St. Michael’s striker Frances Schneider provided the winning margin, rocketing a shot past Bosque goalie Han-
nah Pacheco late in the second half for a 3-2 lead. It was an especially impressive score considering that the Bobcats had seized momentum.
“We just kept trying our hardest just to finish,” Schneider said. “Once we hit that tie, we had to keep going. We wanted to finish the ball. I tried my hardest to finish it.
“It was very surprising because we were not expecting [Bosque to rally] at all. We just came back as hard as we could. We knew we were gonna win this.”
Bosque furiously attempted to piece together one final scoring opportunity in the waning moments, but the Lady Horsemen held on down the stretch.
“I felt that if we could get past this game, we could get to the championship,” Bosque coach Jaocob Cortez said. “I knew this was gonna be our toughest one. I think we did a good job. We just didn’t finish.”
NO. 5 SANTA FE PREP 5, NO. 4 HATCH VALLEY 0
Blue Griffins head coach Stephanie Coppola admitted her team struggled adjusting to an opponent it hadn’t seen before.
Of course, “struggle” is a relative term. It took Santa Fe Prep (11-4-1) about 20 minutes to get comfortable, but once it did, the Bears couldn’t keep up. That was especially true in the case of senior Lynn Robey, who paced the Blue Griffins with four goals.
“We had never played Hatch before,” Coppoa said. “It’s a brand-new team for us. I think it took a minute to kind of get their style figured out. Once we got in a rhythm, I felt like we put the ball on the ground and possessed pretty well and made the most of our opportunity.”
Considering the seeds involved, the comfortable final margin for Santa Fe Prep might seem somewhat surprising. Coppola credited a difficult district schedule for making the Blue Griffins more tournament ready than a year ago when they went undefeated until losing to Socorro in the semifinals.
“Our strength of schedule wasn’t nearly what it was this year,” Coppola said. “So on paper, we were stronger than we [actually] were. We get to play Sandia [Prep], Bosque, St. Mike’s. We play some good schools in our classification so I think that gets us pretty ready.”
Santa Fe Prep plays top seed Sandia Prep at 10 a.m. Thursday on Field 9.
NO. 1 ABQ. SANDIA PREP 4, NO. 9 ROBERTSON 0
The Lady Sundevils had the Lady Cardinals’ number all season, outscoring their district rival by a combined 12-1 over the course of three meetings, including this quarterfinal win.
Sandia Prep (14-4-2) got two goals from Jackie Rodriguez and outshot Robertson (8-13-1) by a 24-6 count as it cruised to victory. Even in defeat, the Lady Cardinals received high praise from Lady Sundevils head coach Matt Westerlund.
“I think when it comes to a team that battles to the last whistle, [Robertson] was a very a physical team,” he said. “They might’ve been the most physical team that we’ve seen in the past month. They definitely gave us stiff competition in the midfield. They gave us a run for our money when it came to the physical side of the game.”