Now it’s win or else as state soccer begins today

Familiar foes Hawks, Rams to square off

In honor of this being a World Cup year, let’s just call this what it is: The knockout stage.

New Mexico’s high school state soccer tournaments will kick off this weekend with 24 first-round games, a couple of them today but the majority of them on Saturday.

In the metro area, there’s only one local game today, but it’s a fitting way to begin the playoffs as the boys from District 1 rivals Rio Rancho and Volcano Vista play at 3 p.m. on the Hawks’ field.

“We’re going to have to play a quality team like that at some point, so might as well get used to it,” said Billy Thiebaut, coach of seventh-seeded

Volcano Vista. “Parity is huge this year at the state tournament.”

When the 10th-seeded Rams (12-6-2) played the Hawks (12-5-1) on the road in the regular season, Rio Rancho came away with a 5-2 victory.

“Our feeling is, we’d rather battle the beast we know than the beast we don’t know,” Thiebaut said.

The last time the teams met, it was a 1-1 draw at Rio Rancho.

No. 11 Gadsden visits No. 6 Mayfield, also this afternoon.

The remaining firstround games in Class 5A (the large-school classification this year for soccer) are Saturday, with ninthseeded Atrisco Heritage at No. 8 Alamogordo (the 5A state champion from last season) and No. 12 Santa Fe visiting No. 5 Clovis.

In the 4A bracket, No. 7 seed Hope Christian (136-1) is home at 11 a.m. Saturday to No. 10 Aztec. The Huskies entered the season not only in a rebuild mode but having to jump up in competition, from Class 1A-4A, the smallest of three divisions last year, to the second-largest.

“I’ll tell you, every game was difficult. Just a very difficult season from a schedule perspective, which was great,” Hope coach Steve Kokulis said. “Which hopefully will prepare us for Saturday’s game.”

Highland (at Taos) and Los Lunas (at Lovington) are on the road Saturday in 4A’s first round.

Class 1A-3A’s No. 7 seed, as with 5A and 4A, is from Albuquerque. Bosque School welcomes Rehoboth Christian on Saturday in the first round.

In a scheduling quirk, there are four schools from Santa Fe all competing against each other in the first round, with Santa Fe Prep meeting St. Michael’s and Desert Academy facing Tierra Encantada, both on Saturday. And a fifth team from Santa Fe, Monte Del Sol, has a firstround bye.

All first-round boys/ girls winners advance to Wednesday’s quarterfinals at the complex on the Santa Ana Pueblo.

GIRLS: Each of the four 5A first-round games are in Albuquerque on Saturday.

Two of them will be nearly simultaneous at the APS Complex, with No. 8 La Cueva facing No. 9 Hobbs at 12:30 p.m., and No. 7 Eldorado meeting No. 10 Clovis at 12:45 p.m.

Across the street, Volcano Vista, the No. 5 seed, is home to Carlsbad. At Bulldog City, No. 6 Albuquerque High plays host to No. 11 Farmington. Both those games are 11 a.m.

Del Norte’s girls haven’t been to state in four years and haven’t won a playoff game in eight years. The eighth-seeded Knights are home to No. 9 Moriarty at 11 a.m. Saturday.

“It should be a pretty competitive match,” Del Norte coach Drew Kexel said. “It really is a tale of the Moriarty team looking like they have a lot more firepower than my team does. … But if you look at the schedules, my team has played a more difficult schedule than Moriarty has.”

Los Lunas has a firstround road game at Artesia.

In 1A-3A, East Mountain’s girls are home to Robertson in the 8-9 matchup. And like the boys, there are two allSanta Fe games in the first round: Santa Fe Prep-Santa Fe Indian and St. Michael’s-Academy for Technology and the Classics.

The top four seeds in all classes received byes into the quarterfinals.