Rally falls short as Cats drop finale

CLOVIS — Clovis High’s boys needed a big win in their District 4-5A and regular-season finale against Roswell High on Saturday at Leon Williams Stadium. Instead, they found themselves behind the 8-ball.

Trailing 3-0 past the midway point of the second half, the Wildcats scored two goals in a span of a couple of minutes, but they couldn’t pull off the comeback and dropped a 3-2 decision.

Clovis (4-4-0, 2-4 district), which lost the teams’ earlier matchup at Roswell 3-1, had to beat the Coyotes by at least two goals in this one to give themselves a chance to make this week’s eight-team state tournament as a No. 2 seed out of the district behind Hobbs.

“It was a good game,” CHS boys coach Greg Trujillo said. “We gave ourselves a chance (late), but we just ran out of time.”

Roswell High (4-3-2, 4-2) scored twice early in the second half to extend its 1-0 halftime lead before the Cats bounced back. Senior forward Lupe Meza scored both goals, taking advantage of a Coyotes ballhandling mistake in front of the net for the first one.

The deficit was simply too much to overcome.

“We’re young defensively,” Trujillo said. “We made a few key little defensive mistakes that you can’t make at the varsity level.”

Junior forward/midfielder Bruno Ramos, who scored twice in Roswell High’s home win over the Cats, tallied the Coyotes’ first two goals on Saturday, the first coming off a Clovis defensive error. Junior midfielder David Sifuentes made it 3-0 following another errant pass by the Cats about midway through the second half.

Roswell High 2, Clovis girls 1 — At Roswell, the Lady Coyotes overcame an early deficit to hand the Lady Wildcats another tough loss on Saturday in the finale for CHS.

It was the fourth one-goal setback for the Lady Cats (3-5-1, 1-5 District 4-5A), who outscored their opponents overall for the season 16-13.

Senior forward Danielle Griego gave Clovis the lead in the 18th minute, scoring off an assist from junior forward/midfielder Luisa Chavez. But Roswell High (5-4-0, 2-4) tied it about eight minutes later with a goal from sophomore Eliza Lopez.

The game-winner was provided by junior Mariana Maldonado in the 73rd minute.

“I think we’ve played better,” CHS girls coach Traci Sievers said. “But I think kind of knowing this was our last match made it hard.”

Rams, Lady Rams drop finales — Portales squads finished their seasons on Saturday against Roswell Goddard, with the Rams (0-8, 0-6 District 4-4A) dropping a 4-1 decision to the Rockets (3-5-1, 2-4) at Roswell while the Lady Rams (0-6, 0-6) lost 5-1 at Greyhound Stadium to the Lady Rockets (6-3, 6-4).