Cavegirls survive in two overtimes against Lady Cats

CARLSBAD — You can bet the Carlsbad girls soccer team was ready for Tuesday’s visit by Clovis High — after all, the Lady Wildcats had dealt the Cavegirls their only loss of the season, a 2-1, double-overtime decision on Sept. 28 at Leon Williams Stadium.

This time, Carlsbad (17-1, 3-1 District 4-5A) prevailed, but not without a struggle. Junior forward/midfielder Allie Myers trailed a play in front of the net and knocked in the game-winner midway through the second sudden-death overtime to give the Cavegirls a 1-0 victory over the Lady Cats (12-3-1, 2-2), who dropped their second match in a row.

Clovis coach Ray Rodriguez said his squad played without starters Caley Adams and Courtney Bradley due to injury.

“Us being down two starters, we had to change a lot of things,” he said. “We didn’t have much time to adjust our sets.”

Both teams finished with four shots on goal and two corner kicks.

“Overall, I was really impressed with how we performed,” Rodriguez said. “It was totally different from how we played on Friday (in a 3-0 home loss to Hobbs).”

The Lady Cats were slated to play a return match at Hobbs (13-2-1, 2-2) on Saturday. They wrap up the regular season on Thursday against Roswell High (10-8, 1-3) at Leon Williams Stadium.

Artesia 5, Portales girls 0 (Tuesday) — Kearsty Nielson took control early for Artesia in Tuesday’s District 4-4A clash at the PHS pitch.

The senior forward finished with a hat trick — including the first two goals in a 3-0 start in the opening seven minutes — as the district-leading Lady Bulldogs notched at 5-0 victory over Portales High.

A tally by senior forward Abigail Rios completed the early surge. To their credit, the Lady Rams (7-8, 1-3) then held Artesia off the board for nearly 40 minutes before Nielson got her other tally early in the second stanza.

Senior midfielder Malie Tupou completed the scoring with less than eight minutes remaining.

PHS got off enough shots, but Lady Builldogs freshman goalkeeper Makaylee Morillon made 10 saves. Eighth-grader Lizzette Gomez collected eight stops in net for Portales.

Lady Rams coach Bonnie Britton said her squad played reasonably well against Artesia’s aggressive style. It was just tough, she said, to come back from the Nielson-led early onslaught.

Portales went 0-6 in last spring’s COVID-shortened campaign, so the Lady Rams have clearly made strides this season.

“If you look at last year and this year, I’m happy with the progress we’ve made,” she said. “It wasn’t that we didn’t play well (on Tuesday), but that aggressive style kind of flusters (her players).”

Portales visited Lovington on Saturday. The Lady Rams finish off the regular campaign with a 5 p.m. home match against Roswell Goddard on Thursday.

Boys — Clovis (5-13, 2-2 District 4-5A) picked up its second win of the season over Carlsbad (3-15, 0-4), scoring twice in the first half en route to a 2-0 victory on Tuesday at Leon Williams Stadium. Meantime, also on Tuesday, Portales (4-10, 0-6 District 4-4A) dropped a 6-0 decision at district-leading and top-ranked Lovington (14-1, 6-0).

The Wildcats were to visit Hobbs on Saturday, then complete regular-season play on Thursday at Roswell High. The Rams finish with district matches against Goddard at home on Tuesday and at Artesia on Thursday.