St. Michael’s girl’s soccer team was outshot by a large margin, but found the goal more times to win Thursday afternoon’s match against visiting Los Alamos

Senior Tiana Baca scoring twice Junior Claire Lee assisted on three goals as the Lady Horsemen triumphed 3-2 in two overtimes

By ARNIE LESHIN, Santa Fe Today

The only thing that counts is the big W, as St. Michael’s girl’s soccer team found out Thursday afternoon at Christian Brothers Athletic Complex.

The Lady Horsemen were outshot 24-8. Their head coach, Gerzain Chavez, remarked that the other team had great players and were the better team.

Final score, St. Michael’s 3, Los Alamos 2. Outshot, praise for the visitors, but the win put the Lady Horsemen at 3-0 and dropped the Hilltoppers to 4-1.

“Just a great win for us,” Chavez said. “The history between us has always been that them being the better team, but today our girls put their heart into it and got the win.”

It’s like a baseball team being outhit and making more errors, but still getting the victory. It’s like a football team winning despite the other team having better statistics. And in basketball, it’s like scoring a victory when the other team had more rebounds, more assists, more steals, and more field goals.

It was sophomore Daisy Smith’s goal with 17 seconds remaining in the second sudden-death that brought the victory. It was St. Michael’s first win over Los Alamos since its state championship season of 2017.

While the Hilltoppers controlled the match statistically and kept the ball on St. Michael’s side most of the way, the Lady Horsemen picked up a goal from senior Tiana Baca on an assist from junior Claire Lee to make it 1-0, and then, with the scored knotted at 1-1, it was again Lee to Baca for a 2-1 lead.

After Los Alamos evened things at 2-2, the first sudden-death was scoreless, and then it was Lee again as she found Smith and Smith delivered to start the celebration.

Before the season, Chavez had mentioned that Lee is now faster and quicker than before, and it certainly paid off. Now his team is off until Albuquerque Hope Christian visits Tuesday afternoon.

“Another big game for us, said Chavez, “and every time we play Hope early in the season they beat us badly.”

At Santa Fe Prep’s Sun Mountain Field, the unbeaten Griffins received six goals from freshman Anna Swanson in a 10-0 rout over East Mountain.

“It was really surprising,” Prep head coach Steph Coppola said. “I really didn’t expect that. The girls were just playing well. East Mountain is a good team, a strong team.”

Sophomore Hayden Colfax keeps making news. She scored twice. Last year she was state-champion three times in track and field, and in a recent cross country meet that the Griffins won, she finished first. Junior Lynn Robey and senior Arlene Talou scored a goal each.

Prep gets a 19-day break before playing Taos on Sept, 19 in a District 2-1A/4A match at Echo Park.

And in football, Santa Fe Indian School won its second in a row by taking to the road and routing Fort Wingate, 57-6, Thursday night. In their opener, the

Braves visited and dominated Cuba. Thursday night, they are home to Espanola McCurdy, with kickoff time 7 p.m.

At Wingate, Indian School scored 13 in the first quarter, 20 in the second quarter to go up 33-0 at halftime, added 21 in the third quarter and settled for three in the last quarter. The lone points for the home side came on a touchdown in the second quarter.