Pintos end season with loss to Taos, final game for ‘a good group of seniors’
Moriarty High School’s boys soccer team ended its season Oct. 21 in a district matchup with the visiting Taos Tigers.
The Pintos played well and mounted multiple attacks during the match, but they couldn’t get the ball in the goal and Taos went home with the 4-0 victory.
“At times it was a bit stressful, we wanted to score, especially when we had a bunch of opportunities, so it was a bit frustrating, but we got a lot of shots on goal so I was pretty proud of that,” Moriarty senior David Vaquera said.
The Pintos finished with a 7-12-1 overall record, and 0-5 in District 2-4A. For the team’s seniors, it was the final soccer game of their high school careers.
With that in mind, Pintos head coach Jordan Allcorn gave many of the seniors an opportunity to play positions they typically don’t play.
“Yeah, we were trying some new things today,” Allcorn said after the game. “We played [senior] Chris Crow in the goal for his last game and moved [sophomore starting goalkeeper] Isaac Dominguez to the field, we played [senior] Chris Mcgrath up the field.”
Crow said it was his first start at the goalkeeper position.
“It was a long time coming,” Crow said. “I had fun.”
Crow tallied eight saves in the game. Both Vaquera and Mcgrath took their share of shots, they just couldn’t find the back of the net. One of Vaquera’s shots near the end of the match was square on frame but Taos’ goalkeeper made a great save on the ball. In the 78th minute, Alejandro “Alex” Lopez hammered one from 10 yards out, but it was saved. Dominguez led the Pintos with four shots on frame—all of which were saved by Taos’ goalkeeper.
Taos scored its first goal in the 12th minute, notched another one just before halftime and tacked on two more goals in the second half.
Allcorn said scoring has been probably the biggest challenge for the Pintos this season.
“We have scored one goal in district play,” Allcorn said, adding, “It was honestly, defensively, one of the better teams I’ve had—we just have no striker.”
Taos (9-9, 4-2) made it to the Class 4A state playoffs as the No. 8 seed and beat No. 9 Goddard in the Oct. 26 opening round.
The Pintos will have to wait until next year for a shot at a possible state berth— and they’ll have to do it without this season’s seniors.
“It’s pretty sad to know that it’s my last year doing soccer for the high school,” Vaquera sad. “But I’m pretty glad that I had a great team to share this time with.”
“It was a good group of seniors,” Allcorn added. “We’re gonna miss them.”