Cats go 0-1-1 on week

CLOVIS - Saturday, Clovis' boys soccer team did something it hadn't done all season.

The Wildcats lost.

Hobbs coming into Leon Williams Stadium presented the 'Cats with an opportunity to bag their first District 4-5A victory while beating a longtime rival. Neither happened, as Clovis fell 3-0 and dropped to 13-1-1 overall, 0-1-1 in the all-important district play.

"It hurts," Clovis head coach Greg Trujillo said, "but you've got to give credit to the Hobbs team. They played their game and capitalized on our mistakes defensively and made them count."

Hobbs junior co-captain Keaton Hartman was the one doing the capitalizing, scoring all three Eagle goals.

The first occurred in the 23rd minute. "They set up a give-and-go and froze our defense," Trujillo said. "We got caught standing, expecting to get the offsides call, and Keaton Hartman just pushed it to the left after cutting to the outside, and set himself up on his left foot and beat the keeper to his left."

NIne minutes later, Hartman struck again. "My left defender was trying to get on a breakway and lost possession probably on the 40 yard line," Trujillo recalled, "and there was No. 10, Mr. Keaton, wide open on the right side this time and it became a one-on-one with the keeper."

Hobbs carried its 2-0 lead into halftime. The Eagles added their third and final goal 27 minutes into the second half, with Hartman sneaking the ball in.

"We played it back to the defense and the defender played it back to the keeper and just gave a real lazy pass to the keeper," Trujillo said, "and Keaton outran the defender for his third goal. ... It was just a lack of focus on our part. ... It should've been avoidable."

Clovis had chances, but did not capitalize like Hartman and the Eagles. Elias Ortega had some point-blank shots hit the crossbar, and played a one-on-one with Hobbs goalie Vicente Cortez wide.

"We had possession of the ball pretty much the whole first 25 minutes of the first half," Trujillo said, "but I guess we got a little too comfortable and forgot our assignments. Our assignments were not to let No. 10 create too much havoc. And he did, he picked us apart."

The scouting report on Hartman stated he was good with his left foot. That was only partially true.

"Actually," Trujillo said, "he was pretty strong with his right foot as well."

Hobbs improved to 12-3 overall, 2-0 in district.

Tuesday tie - Clovis opened its district slate on Tuesday by tying Carlsbad 1-1 after two overtimes.

"I actually thought we were lucky to come out with a tie," Trujillo said, "because they awarded us a penalty kick that I didn't think was a penalty."

The penalty Trujillo referred to was called against Carlsbad with roughly 15 minutes to play in the second half and Clovis trailing 1-0. Trujillo wasn't the only one who didn't think it was the correct call; Carlsbad head coach Rick Castillo didn't think so, nor did the Carlsbad fans.

Still, Ortega took the penalty kick and deposited it into Carlsbad's goal, evening the score.

The game had been scoreless throughout the first half. During that first 40 minutes, Ortega had rocketed a shot toward Carlsbad's goal, but defenseman Jaron Lunsford quickly deflected it. And the half went pretty much like that - with the Wildcats getting a few opportunities and the Cavemen able to stave them off.

"We had chances on corners and crosses ... where we needed to crash the goal and put it in," Trujillo said.

The scoreless tie continued well into the second half until finally, Carlsbad midfielder Austin Naylor broke free with the ball just long enough to boot it into Clovis' goal from about 10 yards out, putting the Cavemen ahead 1-0 in the 58th minute.

Seven and a half minutes later, the game was tied by Ortega. When regulation ended, the game was still tied. Then after a pair of 10-minute overtimes, the game ended in a tie.

"Thank goodness we were able to get the penalty kick," Trujillo said.

It was official - the district opener couldn't be decided through 100 minutes. Better than a loss for Clovis, but hardly the result Trujillo expected.

"We thought Carlsbad was the weakest team in the district," he said, "but they came out and played their game plan, played really direct. And we fell into their style of play."

After the tie was in the books and Carlsbad had left with a 5-6-4 overall record, Trujillo stayed on the field with his players and staff, offering some prolonged postgame instruction, talking until almost all the stadium lights were turned off, telling the players things like: "Our battle was lost in the midfield today, guys," and "Take advantage of the next five (district) games, because nothing's a given."

When his postgame session was over, the stadium just about dark, Trujillo offered the main reason he thought his team hadn't bagged a victory.

"Our build-up was not there," he said. "Today we didn't play to our strength, which is our wing play and then stretch them out. ... That's what all good teams do, is try to stretch teams out and create spaces."

Next up - Clovis visits its third district opponent, Roswell, on Tuesday. Game time is 6 p.m.

"We've got to try and get something going," Trujillo said. "You've got to do well in district, too. You're not going to get into states just based on your (overall) record."