State prep soccer set to begin Friday
Defending 5A champion Sandia to face Eldorado
Five of prep soccer’s six defending girls state champions will be off on the opening weekend of the 2019 playoffs.
The exception is Sandia High.
The Matadors, a 10 seed, are one of 48 teams that will be playing first-round games Friday and Saturday.
And Sandia (11-7), last year’s Class 5A state champion, won’t have to travel far. It’s a short drive to play rival Eldorado (10-6-2) at 3:30 p.m. Friday at the Eagles’ new field. Eldorado, the No. 7 seed, beat Sandia 3-2 in overtime two months ago in the metro tournament.
“It’s gonna be a tough one. They’re very compact, they get behind the ball well and they’re dangerous on set pieces,” Eldorado coach Andrew Wiese said.
Sandia coach Jay Sheradan said the Matadors are ready to mount a title defense.
“They think they can go toe-to-toe with anybody in the state right now,” Sheradan said. “And they’re going in with no pressure on them.”
Cleveland (9-8-1), also in 5A, will be in action this weekend, too. The ninth-seeded Storm visits No. 8 Mayfield at noon Saturday at the Field of Dreams complex in Las Cruces. These two met on the second day of their regular season, with the Trojans winning 1-0 in overtime in Rio Rancho. The winner of this rematch moves ahead to meet No. 1 seed Volcano Vista in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.
Two district champions in 5A, No. 5 Carlsbad and No. 6 Centennial, will host first-round games.
In 4A, the only metro-area ■ school playing in the first round is No. 7 Los Lunas (11-9), which plays host to No. 10 Lovington (1010) on Friday at 3:30 p.m.
East Mountain (13-6), the No. 5 seed in the 1A-3A bracket, is home at 3 p.m. Saturday in the first round against Santa Fe
Indian, which got into the field despite a 2-18 record and having scored only six goals this season. There are only 13 soccer-playing girls programs that played a full schedule in the 1A-3A division.
BOYS: From the metro area, only one school — Hope Christian — has a home game Friday as 1A-3A’s seventh-seeded Huskies face Santa Teresa (9-9) at 3:30 p.m.
“We saw Santa Teresa last year at the state tournament, and they were extremely wellcoached, well-disciplined, wellorganized,” Huskies coach Steve Kokulis said. “And athletic. It’s a talented group.”
Hope (12-8) was one of four teams from its district to earn a playoff bid. No. 11 seed Valley (at Taos on Saturday) and No. 12 Highland (at Chaparral on Friday) also qualified. Academy was the district champ, although Hope edged the Chargers 1-0 in their most recent meeting.
La Cueva and Rio Rancho in ■
5A have “home” games Saturday. The eighth-seeded Bears (12-5-1) will welcome Las Cruces (13-7) at 1 p.m. at the APS Complex, and the seventh-seeded Rams (13-7) will take on No. 10 Eldorado (107-1) at 3 p.m., their third meeting of the year. Rio Rancho beat the Eagles 2-1 at the metro tournament and 3-2 in mid-September at Eldorado.
Volcano Vista, the 11 seed, is at Hobbs in the first round.