Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff photo: Matthew Asher Portales senior Junior Salomon, right, is congratulated by teammate Micah Viera in the second half after Salomon scored his third goal of Tuesday’s game against East Mountain. Salomon finished with four goals and the Rams won 9-1.
STAFF WRITER
The Portales boys’ first match of the season couldn’t have gone much better on Tuesday.
The Rams used a six-goal second half to beat East Mountain 9-1 at PHS, with five different players tallying goals.
Staff photo: Matthew Asher
Portales senior Junior Salomon, right, is congratulated by teammate Micah Viera in the second half after Salomon scored his third goal of Tuesday’s game against East Mountain. Salomon finished with four goals and the Rams won 9-1.
Seniors Pedro Perea and Junior Salomon combined for six goals, including four by Perea. He tallied the first Rams goal of the season about four minutes into the first half.
The Rams led 3-0 at halftime and once the second half started, Salomon was simply unstoppable as he scored three second-half goals with East Mountain (0-5) unable to slow him down.
“We played really good,” Salomon said. “We were moving the ball a lot, looking for open spots. My teammates just saw the open opportunities and made great passes. It was a great team win.”
Rams soccer coach Nathan Dodge summed up the reason for his team’s success on Tuesday.
“(We) played really well,” Dodge said, “possessed the ball most of the time and had a ton of shots on the goal.”
Split down the middle, the Rams had seven shots on goal in each half. The only problem for Portales in the first half was East Mountain’s goalie who kept the game in relative check for the first half.
“In the first half we had a lot of shots on goal but (East Mountain) had some great saves,” Dodge said. “I think three or four good ones. In the second half we had them worn down and continued to shoot well. If we continue to shoot like this during the season, we’ll be fine.”
The Rams came close to having a clean sheet but a misplayed ball by the Portales goalkeeper gave the Timberwolves their lone goal of the game about 23 minutes into the second half.
In addition to Salomon and Perea, seniors Micah Viera, Freddy Exiga and freshman Ethan Jaynes scored for the Rams.
The nightcap for Portales had the same result, but it was much closer as the Lady Rams beat the Lady Timberwolves 1-0.
Portales junior Angie Gonzalez had the lone goal of the match when she scored in the 25th minute of the first half. As a team, the Lady Rams (2-2) had 22 total shots on goal and Lady Rams goalie Zully De la Torre had seven saves to record a clean sheet.
“I think we need new ammunition,” Lady Rams coach Ruben Tellez joked when he saw the 22 shots of goal. “It was a good win for us. The girls played very well. They fought. I told them at halftime they would need to be physical. The referees were letting them play. Our girls realized this and that’s what helped us by matching East Mountain’s toughness.”
Tellez was pleased with the victory against East Mountain (1-2) but knows there’s more work to be done as the season progresses.
“We still have to work on controlling the ball but the girls are working well as a team,” he said. “They play very hard for 80 minutes. As a coach, you can’t ask for more than that since they go out and compete.”
The Lady Rams return to the pitch on Saturday as they host Artesia at 3 p.m. while the boys team will not play until Sept. 2 when they and the girls team travel to Santa Fe to take on Desert Academy.
