St. Michael’s girls dispose of district foe Albuquerque Bosque School, 3-2, in the Wednesday morning 3A state soccer tournament quarterfinals and faces 2nd seeded Socorro in Thursday’s semis at the Bernalillo Complex

By Arnie Leshin 

St. Michael’s had split two matches with District 2-3A opponent Albuquerque Bosque Charter School, but the one that counted most was Wednesday morning’s 3-2 win in the state tournament quarterfinals.

It gained the 6th seeded Lady Horsemen (15-6-1) a semifinals match Thursday morning against 2ndseeded Socorro (20-1) and will be played on field 10 with 10 o’clock the scheduled starting time.

The other semis has 5th seeded Santa Fe Prep (12-5-1) versus top seed Albuquerque Sandia Prep, with both being from District 2-3A, and it is slated to begin at 10 a.m. on field 9. Sandia Prep is 13-4.

The Griffins blanked 3rd seeded Hatch Valley, 5-0, in the quarters Wednesday and Hatch’s season concluded at 17-3, which says a lot about its schedule and that of Prep, whose district had four teams had at state.

St. Michael’s had previously defeated Bosque 4-1 and lost 2-1. 5th seeded Bosque finished at 12-7-1 and is the only team to win over Socorro, thatcoming in a 2-1 overtime match. Before that, Socorro had won seven in a row. After that, it has won its last 16,

In the quarters, Socorro won handily, 6-0, over 7thseeded Navajo Prep (11-7-3) to continue its streak.

St. Michael’s took a 1-0 lead after the first half on sophomore Francis Schneider’s goal. She also assisted on the second half goals made by sophomore Olivia Farrar and 8th grader Grace Sandoval. Farrar also had an assist. Down 3-1, Bosque scored twice in the second half.

In 4A, Los Alamos (15-5) won 4-0 to gain Thursday’s semifinals against number one seed Albuquerque Academy, which shut down Albuquerque Del Norte, 9-0, to run its record to 19-2.

. . . St. Michael’s boys weren’t as fortunate. The 6thseeded Horsemen (13-8-1) bowed out with a 3-1 loss to 3rd seeded Monte del Sol, which moved into Thursday’s semis against 2nd seeded Robertson(14-3), which got past Bosque, 2-1. St. Michael’s and Monte del Sol has played one previous that resulted into a 1-1 tie that was called due to bursts of lightening.

The other semis has top seed Albuquerque Sandia Prep (13-8) taking on 5th seeded Tierra Encantada which won over 4th seed Hatch Valley, 1-0, and which moved district foes Tierra Encantada and Monte del Sol to the round of four.

That also makes it an all-Northern New Mexico semifinal in 3A. In two matches between them, the Dragons won 1-0 both times over Tierra Encantada.