Wildcats wrap up playoff spot with rally past Roswell

CLOVIS — It’s all about perspective. If Clovis High’s football team had won a game 6-3, it would’ve been a defensive struggle, a war of field goals.

When the Clovis boys soccer team beat Roswell 6-3 on Tuesday night at Leon Williams Stadium, it was a high-scoring affair.

Not that it started out that way, at least not for the ’Cats. Clovis was down 2-0 early and scored just one goal through the game’s first 38 minutes-and-change. But the Wildcats kicked the floodgates open in the second half and kicked open the state playoff door with a victory that assured they’ll be in the tournament.

The only question now is whether the ’Cats get a home playoff game. That will be determined Sunday when the brackets are released. But after Tuesday’s victory, they know they’ll be playing postseason soccer somewhere.

And that’s a good thing.

“Now the real season begins,” Clovis head coach Greg Trujillo said. “I told the guys, when we played regular season, we finished off whatever we did. District, finished off. Now the real season begins. We’ll find out Sunday where we’re at; hopefully we’ll host a home game and then we’ll see what happens from there.”

“This is really big,” Clovis senior striker Richard Masterson said. “We probably had a seed in the playoffs, but this really clinched it. Hopefully we’ll get a home game for the first round. That’d be nice.”

“At the beginning of the season, our goal was to work as a team, have chemistry together,” Wildcats senior halfback and co-captain Jose Valladares said as his teammate Jonathan Puga translated. “And our goal was to go to states and play as a team.”

Valladares scored what turned out to be the game-winner, off an assist from Lupe Meza. Puga iced the cake by scoring Clovis’ sixth and final goal.

Masterson wound up with a hat trick.

“I’ve never seen him be so aggressive to the ball, wanting it,” Trujillo said of Masterson. “The desire that he showed tonight was really impressive. He made us better tonight.”

But a game that ended so well, wasn’t going so well early in the first half. Samuel Calvillo put Roswell up 1-0 with less than two minutes gone by. Less than five minutes into the game, Brady Simpson gave the Coyotes a 2-0 advantage. Not an ideal start for the ’Cats.

“It’s kind of tough to come out and focus,” Trujillo said. “You’ve got all this stuff going on, Senior Night and everything. We didn’t get a great warmup. It’s a big distraction.”

In the 12th minute, Masterson put Clovis on the board with his first goal, assisted on a through ball from Elias Ortega.

Clovis trailed 2-1 until the final minute of the first half, when Ortega set Masterson up again with a through ball, and again Masterson delivered on his opportunity. With that goal, it was a 2-2 game heading into the break.

“I think we had momentum going into the second half because we tied them at the end of the first,” Masterson said. “So going into the second, we had that chip on our shoulder.”

‘That chip’ gave them their first lead of the night. With 33:37 left in the second half, Ortega made good on a penalty kick and gave Clovis a 3-2 advantage.

The Wildcats came close to increasing their lead during the next several minutes. At one point, a header by Kunal Puppala hit the crossbar and skipped over the goal. At another, Ortega dribbled down the left side with Roswell’s Benjamin Simpson in hot pursuit. Ortega managed to fire off a shot, but Coyotes goalie Josue Gonzalez deflected it.

A bit later, Jose Mendoza booted one from midfield that was caught by Gonzalez before Mendoza’s teammate Cade Jones could get to it.

So the 3-2 score held, until 26 minutes remained in the second half. It was then that Roswell’s Javier Valdez ripped a shot from the left side of the 40-yard line. It arced in the air, and Clovis goalie Bruno Armendariz tried to make a play on it, but it went over him and into the back of the net. Tie game again.

“I asked the keeper, ‘What were you doing?’” Trujillo recalled. “He was adjusting his defense and waiting to see what was going on. And he didn’t even hear the whistle when they put the ball in play.”

It was 3-3 until less than 20 minutes remained in the second half. But then, Valladares worked his way through two Coyote defenders and fired off a shot from just outside the purple football end zone. The ball found its way into Roswell’s net and Clovis was up 4-3.

All part of a night’s work, according to Valladares.

“When I made the team as a captain, I wanted to push the team forward,” Valladares said through Puga.

Just inside the 18-minute mark, Clovis struck again. Jones was standing diagonally to the left of Roswell’s goal and fired a shot toward the right corner of the net. Gonzalez was preparing to catch the ball, make a stop, when Masterson snuck in behind him and headed the ball into the net.

“That was a 50-50. It could’ve gone either way,” Masterson said. “I talked to (Jones) on the sideline and he said it was going for me but it could’ve been his or mine.”

Puga headed in the Wildcats’ last goal from close range, not far inside the 15-minute mark.

“I was just going for the ball,” he said. “I was just there to finish it off.”

Soon it was official. Clovis’ playoff drought was over. The Wildcats — 16-2-1 overall, 3-2-1 in District 4-5A play, still undefeated against any team not named Hobbs — were finally tournament-bound.

“Roswell always had our number in the past,” Trujillo said, “but the guys pulled it out.”

“I think this gives us a lot of confidence going into the playoffs,” Masterson said. “Hopefully we can just keep this energy and we go as far as we can.”

Lady ’Cats second

ROSWELL — The Clovis girls soccer team also beat Roswell Tuesday night, except a slight difference in score, 5-3, and location, Roswell High.

Madison Lynch and Nevaeh Coronado did all the scoring for Clovis, with Lynch pulling off a hat trick and Coronado notching two goals. As a result, Clovis locked up second place because Hobbs beat Carlsbad 2-0. The Eagles and Wildcats tied in the standings and split their head-to-head games by 1-0 counts, but the Eagles won a tiebreaker for goal differential in all district games.

“I’d be happier if we were first, but we needed some different scenarios going in and they didn’t happen,” Clovis head coach Traci Sievers said.

Hannah Howell and Hanna Nussbaumer split time in goal Tuesday, with each recording three saves.

Jazmin Valdez, Aydan Everett and Danielle Griego added assists for the Lady Wildcats, who ended their regular season at 14-3-1 overall, 4-1-1 in district.

Sievers said she expected her team to have a day off from practicing Wednesday before getting back at it on Thursday. The Lady ’Cats will find out Sunday where they’re seeded in the state tournament.

“Ranking-wise,” Sievers said, “we’ll probably be 10th or 11th.”