Duran, Los Alamos beat Chaparral.
5 Los Alamos 1 4 Chaparral 0
SANTA ANA PUEBLO — The Los Alamos Hilltoppers showed they were more than just watching Arthur Steinkamp score.
But they still needed Arthur Steinkamp.
The talented Los Alamos senior forward has been the hottest scorer in Class 4A over the month, with 28 goals and five assists over seven matches. So it might appear that the rest of the players on the field were merely spectators to Steinkamp’s theatrics.
“Arthur is as good as any player in the state, at any level,” Los Alamos head coach Ron Blue said. “And no question, this is what we do: Sometimes, guys get mesmerized at Arthur and how special he is, and they don’t follow through.”
Not Dakota Duran — not Wednesday morning, at least. Duran scored the lone goal during a Class 4A quarterfinal between No. 5 Los Alamos and fourth-seeded Chaparral at the New Mexico Soccer Tournament Complex, and it helped the Hilltoppers to a 1-0 win.
Los Alamos (15-6-1) advanced to its fourth straight semifinal appearance, and it will face a surprise in No. 9 Los Lunas, which upset top-seeded Albuquerque St. Pius X 2-1.
Not to be forgotten, though, is that Steinkamp set up Duran’s big moment. He streaked down the left sideline and fired a high shot from the extreme left flank that senior Lobos goalkeeper Rodolfo Derma got his hands on, if only to deflect it behind him.
That’s where Duran was, and he leaped into the air past a Chaparral defender and headed the ball off the left side post and into the net in the 36th minute.
“I thought, ‘It’s either going in, or it’s going [off the] post,’ ” Duran said. “I was getting worried a little bit, so it was pretty eventful.”
Otherwise, it was a fairly pedestrian match, as Los Alamos’ defense answered the Lobos’ challenges. While the Hilltoppers went into the match unfamiliar with Chaparral (13-7-1), they quickly figured out its style. Of course, it helped that they had plenty of experience defending it, thanks to years of playing Capital before this season.
“That ball-handling style and dribbling, I respect it, but sometimes it’s vulnerable when they to it too much,” Duran said. “Then, they lose [the ball] and get frustrated. I felt like a little more discipline would have helped them.”
Blue said the Lobos’ speed, especially in transition to both sides of the field, was a serious concern because Los Alamos didn’t have the speed to match them. However, the Hilltoppers’ back line was quick enough to slow down Chaparral’s counterattacks.
“We’ve been scoring a lot of goals, and we haven’t been in one of these types of games, where we needed to trust our defense,” Blue said. “What a game those guys had. I am in awe of how the whole team defended.”
Even though the path to the 4A championship match appears easier with the Tigers’ win, Blue said he hadn’t put much thought into it because he was taking the tournament with a “one match at a time” approach.
“I just want our guys to not worry about them,” Blue said. “I just want them to worry about us. If we go in worried about us, we’re good enough.”
NO. 3 SANTA TERESA 1, NO. 6 TAOS 0
The Desert Warriors had not been held scoreless during the season, but the Tigers almost pulled it off.
It wasn’t until the 76th minute, when Angel Arzola caught the Taos back line on its heels and slipped a thru ball to Francisco Zubia into the right side of the net to break the scoreless tie.
Santa Teresa (16-3-2) had several opportunities to score prior to that, but the performance of Tigers goalkeeper Milo Collingnon kept the Desert Warriors off the scoreboard. Taos head coach Michael Hensley said the late barrage of attacks stemmed from his team’s attacks on the Santa Teresa goal.
“We were pushing forward, and we just got caught,” Hensley said. “They’re a well-coached team. They played really smart and caught us pushing too far forward.”
The Tigers (15-3-1) almost forced overtime, but an open Patrick Penso could not pick up a last-second thru ball from Tevas Leshem and the ball bounced away.