Cibola gets season sweep of GR
Neri, Yasher score for Raiders; Hawks’ last-gasp effort goes awry in 80th minute
A late-afternoon downpour turned the Gila Ridge soccer field into a mild, boglike playing surface. And while it affected the speed of the game, and quashed a number of attacks up the field, both coaches made clear that the playing conditions impacted both teams, so no excuses were given.
The end result of the match was a 2-1 Cibola win over Gila Ridge on Tuesday at Veterans Memorial Stadium, the Raiders’ second victory over the Hawks this season in a head-to-head matchup that has produced some memorable results in the last two years.
“It was a hard-fought battle,” Cibola coach Andres Preciado said. “We knew coming in, Gila Ridge always plays us tough, and it’s always a back-and-forth game.”
When later asked why these games against Gila Ridge (3-5 AIA) play out so closely, Preciado said: “We know each other so well. We know our tendencies, which makes it a little more of a chess match.”
The season sweep of the
CIB: 7-1 AIA GR: 3-5 AIA
Hawks was not a given, though, for the Raiders (7-1 AIA), who came into Tuesday ranked No. 15 in 6A. In the last minute of the match, a save by freshman goalkeeper Lizbeth Yanez ricocheted out of her grasp, right to where two Gila Ridge forwards were standing. Mia Corners and Shaina Cortez were there and both went for a shot, but their close proximity backfired and neither got a clean kick on the ball. The Raiders eventually cleared it, and that was the ballgame.
“You have those opportunities to put it away, and that was kind of the story of the game for us,” Gila Ridge coach Jessica VanderBaan said. “It gets frustrating, but they’ve just to keep pushing, and even-