Lady Rams run away from Lovington in second half

PORTALES — When Portales High’s girls beat Lovington in a season-opening tournament at Roswell, it came down to penalty kicks.

This time, the Lady Rams made sure, although it actually still took them a while to get going. They broke open a tight contest at halftime with six second-half tallies — five by junior forward/midfielder Julissa Flores — in an 8-2 District 4-4A drubbing of the Lady Wildcats on Saturday at the PHS soccer pitch.

“We talked a lot (at halftime) about we need to get as many points as possible,” PHS girls coach Bonnie Britton said. “We had some injuries and didn’t play a couple of our (normal) starters today.”

Torres certainly picked up the slack. She scored three times in a span of less than 12 minutes early in the second half to help extend the lead to 6-1.

Junior forward/midfielders Jolie Griffith and Adeli Hernandez each found the back of the net during the first half for the Lady Rams (7-6, 1-1 district), while eighth-grader Maria Lujan scored the other second-half goal. Portales posted a 16-9 advantage over Lovington (1-12-1, 0-2) in shots on goal, with eighth-grader Lizzette Gomez making seven stops for the Lady Rams.

Senior forward/midfielder Celest Dominguez notched both goals for the Lady Wildcats.

Portales played at Roswell Goddard on Tuesday in district action. Next Tuesday, the Lady Rams travel to Artesia for another district tilt.

Riess, PHS boys post win — Junior Michael Riess was the individual winner and helped Portales High’s boys to the team championship in Saturday’s Artesia Invitational cross country meet.

PHS and New Mexico Military each finished with 57 points, but the Rams had the higher-placing No. 6 runner. Riess posted a 5K time of 15 minutes, 7.95 seconds.

Senior Evan Carbajal came in fourth for the Rams with a time of 18:19.05.

Meantime, the Lady Rams did not enter a full squad. Eighth-grader Aubrey McNeill was the team’s top finisher, placing fourth in 20:52.84.

NMMI took the girls’ team championship with 26 points. Roswell Goddard’s Morgan Waltmire was the individual winner in 18:48.18.

Portales returns to action on Saturday at Roswell in the Pecos Valley Invite, hosted by Goddard.

CHS harriers compete at Canyon Invitational — Clovis High’s squads were the lone non-Texas entries in Saturday’s Canyon Invitational cross country meet.

Amarillo High took boys team honors with 53 points to 61 for Canyon. The Wildcats were seventh out of nine full contingents with 176 points.

Freshman Sammy Fuentes was the Cats’ top finisher, coming in 15th over five kilometers in 16: 51.89. The individual champion was Amarillo High’s Miles Cox in 15:39.01.

The Lady Wildcats, meantime, were 12th in a 12-team field with 263 points. Canyon ran away with team honors at 25, while Farwell was second with 69.

CHS senior Shylee Tree was 33rd out of 114 runners with a 2-mile time of 13:41.35, while senior Jazlyn Salazar came in 36th at 13:55.59.

The Cats and Lady Cats return to action on Thursday in the Hobbs Invitational.