Top-ranked Santa Fe High got past 9th-seeded Albuquerque Volcano Vista

Welcome to the state soccer tournament coach.

That’s first-year head coach Chris Eadie of Santa Fe High, which is ranked No. 1 in 5A and had a real tough tussle in its first round match Friday against visiting No. 9 Albuquerque Volcano Vista, but survived 4-3 to reach the semifinals.

Yes, one step closer to the class finals, but Coach Eadie didn’t discuss the final score when he spoke after the game, instead ripping apart the physical play that went into his team’s 20th win in 21 starts.

“This was not a fun game,” Eadie said. “This was not the style of play we encountered during the season. To me, it was what you’d call “ugly soccer” .

Of course much of this was attributed to Volcano Vista. Playing the physical style that the Albuquerque schools usually play in district outings. The Hawks forced the Demons out of their quick-hitting, passing style, they were instead intent on playing physically and attempting to turn every turnover into a fast-break counter attack to slow down the home side.

It almost worked as Volcano Vista finished up at 14-5 and kept Santa Fe High on its heels in a unexpected high scoring match over the pitch at Ivan Head Stadium.

But in finding the net, favored Santa Fe High was looking good with a 3-1 lead in a span of 10 minutes of the first half. But the Hawks remained around using their brand of play, and with back-to-back goals from forward Keegan Monnheimer, they got to within 4-3 on the road. His first came late in the first and second in the final minutes of regular.

“Heck,” said Demons midfielder Michael Wissman, “our game is passing the ball, and we didn’t do that as much as we liked. Now their game is physical and to boom the ball over the top of the defense, and we played their game a little bit, but we came out ahead.”

As for Coach Eadie, it’s best to be more concerned with Wednesday’s semifinal against 4th-seeded Hobbs, which lines up there after shutting out 12th-seeded Albuquerque Atrisco Heritage, 2-0, on Friday.

And if they get past Hobbs, Eadie’s boys will meet up with the other semis winner for the championship after No. 3 Albuquerque Sandia plays at No. 2 Albuquerque La Cueva Tuesday, and the finals will be contested at the University of New Mexico Soccer Complex.

So it’s kind of useless to complain about how the other team, the one you defeated, because as long as the officials don’t keep calling fouls or hold up yellow or red cards, the match goes on, as it did at Santa Fe Friday.

For the Demons, it was a pair of goals in the first quarter from junior midfielder Alex Waggoner that put them up 2-0, and then a shot tallied by the Hawks made it 2-1, and after Santa Fe High went up 3-1, Moonheimer trimmed the gap to 3-2, and then behind 4-2 on a boot from Henry Mazulis, it was Moonheimer pulling his team to within 4-3, and then the visitors ran out of time after a gallant effort.

As the top seed, Santa Fe High will play host this time to Hobbs.

As for Eadie, he didn’t quit running through what he felt was two much physical stuff by the Hawks.

“After the first 20 minutes,” he said, “I could see that they (Volcano Vista) were going to hound my ball handlers with a body or a hand or more. Late in the second half, my player, Waggoner, took a blow to his upper back by one of their defenders and crumpled to the ground.

“And they were just a big physical team coming at us, and the refs were giving them the green light to basically do anything. Until this game, Alex had never came upon this kind of contact. There were big hits, caution-warrenting yellow-card-worthy hits.”

Sorry to hear this coach, but the visitors had it worse by having to lose a close match and then heading home on I-25 South, it wasn’t that much fun.