STATE SOCCER TOURNAMENT

By Arnie Leshin 

Aside from the intrigue of the first-round state tournament girl’s soccer rubber match pairing Santa Fe Prep at St. Michael’s in Class 2-3A Friday afternoon, the rest of the games will be played either Friday, Saturday, and the following week. 

That same district has No. 7 West Las Vegas making its initial post-season appearance at No. 2 Albuquerque Bosque Charter School, and that’s also on Friday at 7 p.m. for the 8-team bracket. 

Meanwhile, Santa Fe High, in 5-5A, is the No. 5 seed in the 12-team and gets a Tuesday night home match versus No. 12 Clovis. The Demonettes, first in their district, take on a Wildcats squad that took second in 4-5A and was 13-5-1 overall. 

Clovis sports wins over 4A playoff teams Artesia and Roswell Goddard, while also playing 5A top-seeded Las Cruces in a 3-0 setback back in September. 

“Clovis is by no means a pushover,” said Santa Fe head coach Justin Najaka, “the teams they’ve played were pretty strong, so it’s going to be a tough game, we know that.”

In the 4A girls bracket, 2-4A champion Los Alamos secured the fourth seed and will get a bye through the opening round matches. Taos, the district runner-up, was given the 11th seed and playing at No. 6 Santa Teresa. 

In boy’s play, Santa Fe Prep is the No. 5 seed and the district champion will go against No. 4 Rehoboth Christian in the opening round. The 5-1A/3A winning Tierra Encantada is the eighth seed and will head for top-seeded Albuquerque Sandia Prep in the first round. 

Then there was Los Alamos as fourth seed with a bye, while Taos got in as No. 12 and final team in the bracket. The Tigers will visit No. 5 Santa Teresa on Tuesday at 7 p.m., with the winner meeting up with Los Alamos. 

Classes 4A and 5A have their opening round matches Tuesday, and will play the quarterfinal round Friday or Saturday.

As for the 2-3A girl’s rubber match, it’s Santa Fe Prep at St. Michael’s Friday at 3 p.m. after they split home and away matches during the regular season. Griffins won 4-3 at their Sun Mountain Field, followed by a 3-2 Lady Horsemen victory at their Chrisitan Brothers Athletic Complex.

Appears that the Prep head coach Adelyn Smith was upset by the 98-minute winning “own goal” scored by St. Michael’s and voiced her complaint to her team by referring to “Crush St. Mike’s.” 

Haven’t heard from any other dissatisfied coaches.