Saturday, October 4, 2008

Lady Tigers knock off defending District 5-5A champions

Valencia to start 5-4A play on Tuesday

News-Bulletin reports

The Los Lunas girls soccer team scored a major upset with a 2-1 victory over Eldorado at the Farmers Insurance Sports Complex on Tuesday, which Los Lunas coach James Torres called the biggest win of his coaching career.

"It was a huge win for us," Torres said. "They're probably one of the best teams that we've beaten in the history of our team. Not just for this season, but in general for the soccer program. Eldorado's always in the top five in the state."

Los Lunas is now 10-4 overall and 3-0 in district 5-5A. The win over the Eagles (9-4, 0-1) now puts the Tigers in the driver's seat to win the district.

"It's nice to decide our own destiny and not depend on other teams," Torres said. "Eldorado's always that one team in the district that a lot of people on the outside looking in say is supposed to win our district. It's nice to go in and screw that up."

Los Lunas struck first with a goal in the 12th minute. After the Tigers took the ball down the field, Olivia Carrasco corralled a bouncing ball inside the penalty box.

Carrasco didn't have a clear shot, so she sent the ball just outside the box, where Randi Ryan kicked it toward the right post and into the net.

Los Lunas goalkeeper Jackie Candelaria and the rest of the Tigers held off the Lady Eagles for the rest of the first half and almost the entire second half until Los Lunas got an insurance goal in the 77th minute.

Bailey Ryan kicked the ball down the field between two Eldorado defenders. Bobbi Hinkle was right behind the ball and ended up with a breakaway, shooting the ball from the edge of the penalty box past the keeper and into the net.

The Tigers would need the second goal, as the Eagles scored just a minute later. Whitney White stole the ball and got a breakaway on Candelaria, who was able to get a hand on the ball but couldn't keep it from ending up in the net.

Los Lunas then held off Eldorado for the last several minutes, which included three or four minutes of stoppage time.

"We may have had a letdown after our second goal, which allowed them to score, but we held them off from there," Torres said. "It was pretty intense, especially that last 5-10 minutes"

The Tigers will not play again until Thursday, when they play at Highland at 5 p.m. A win over the Hornets would give Los Lunas a win over every one of its district rivals.

Torres said that the layoff might make it more difficult to keep the team focused, but it will also help heal some nagging injuries.

Volcano Vista 4, Valencia 2

At Volcano Vista on Tuesday, the Valencia Lady Jaguars started playing well in the second half, according to their coach, but they were already down 4-0 at that point.

"We just ran out of time," said VHS coach Kimberly Chavez-Burkhard. "All their goals were scored off set plays, and we barely got the ball into their half of the field in the first half."

Down 4-0 with just seven minutes left in the match, Andrea Wilson made a nice cross to Molly Holliday, who scored the Jaguars' first goal. Jenae Yalch put in a penalty kick about five minutes later for Valencia's other goal.

Volcano (8-4) is a second-year program with only freshman and sophomore classes, but many of its players have significant soccer experience. The Lady Hawks beat Los Lunas 2-1 in overtime on Sept. 20.

Molly Sharpe made 14 saves in the match for VHS, while the Jaguars managed six shots on goal.

Valencia 3, Taos 0

VHS coach Kimberly Chavez-Burkhard said her team played well in the second half of Tuesday's loss, and that apparently carried over into Thursday's trip to take on the Taos Lady Tigers.

"If we can play in district the way we played at Taos, we'll have confidence," said Chavez-Burkhard. "We're finally stepping up and realizing we don't have to play down to the level of our competition."

On Tuesday, Oct. 7, the Lady Jaguars are set to play the first district match of their inaugural varsity season. Valencia travels to take on Del Norte at 4:30 p.m. that day in the District 5-4A opener for both teams.

The Jaguars (4-8) had a much stronger passing game going Thursday compared to some recent matches, though it didn't produce on the scoreboard Thursday until very late. Alexa Padilla scored in the 65th minute to make the score 1-0, with Jenae Yalch getting the assist.

Molly Holliday scored off a pass from Leslie Iturralde about 10 minutes later, and Padilla added an insurance goal in the final minute of the game, assisted by Holliday.

Goalkeeper Molly Sharpe stopped all12 shots fired at her by the Tigers (5-7).

The Valencia junior varsity also had an important day Thursday, as its 4-1 win at Taos was its first victory of the season.

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