Raiders dominate possession, win 2-0

Neri, Quintero score within 6 minutes; Raiders off to 3-0 start

It was apparent Cibola was in control for all 80 minutes Tuesday.

How the Raiders got their two goals in their 2-0 win against Copper Canyon at Raider Field was not as obvious.

The numerous open looks were not converted to goals. The random plays, “scrappy” as Cibola coach Andres Preciado described, were the two that went in.

In the 21st minute, a shot from the left side of the box deflected off the Copper Canyon goalkeeper, who could not wrap it up. The ball skidded toward junior forward Eliani Neri. Neri tapped it toward the right corner, and then followed her slow roller and beat two Aztec defenders to tap it once more from right outside the goal line, this time for a score.

Six minutes later, on a corner kick, sophomore midfielder Aylin Quintero used her body near the goal area to score and make it a 2-0 game, the score that would stay put for the rest of the contest.

“Some of those scrappy goals, we wanted to score a little bit more than the other team. Sometimes, like the great chances you have, the ball doesn’t go in,” Preciado said. “That’s the beauty of the sport. But I’d rather have that problem while not scoring than not having chances at all. We had a variety of chances; we just couldn’t convert tonight.”

Those other chances were of the high-percentage variety. Once in the first half