Lady Cats capture district finale

CLOVIS - After losing its previous three matches - albeit to quality opponents - the Clovis High girls soccer team believes it finally punched its ticket to this week's 12-team Class 5A state playoffs.

Senior forward Nevaeh Coronado's goal late in the first half stood up, and the Lady Wildcats edged Roswell High 1-0 on Thursday night in the District 4-5A and regular-season finale for both teams at Leon Williams Stadium.

In its last three outings, CHS (13-4-1, 3-3 district) had lost twice to Hobbs and once to Carlsbad, who shared the district title. First-year coach Ray Rodriguez expects his squad to likely get a No. 9 or No. 10 seed when the bracket is released today by the New Mexico Activities Association.

He was just glad to see the Lady Cats get in the win column again.

"They turned it up," Rodriguez said of the squad's effort and intensity. "It's what we'd been missing the last three games."

After Clovis defeated the Lady Coyotes 3-2 in the earlier meeting in Roswell, both teams struggled to find offense in this one. The Lady Cats missed a couple of good scoring chances before freshman forward/midfielder Ava Crain took the ball down the right side and slipped a pass in front of the net to Coronado, whose shot going away from the goal beat Roswell High keeper Anahi Sierra.

"That was a perfect play," Coronado said. "That's a play we work on in practice.

"I was kind of far out from the ball, and I hit it with the side of my foot. I had to step into it to get a touch."

The Lady Coyotes (10-10, 1-5), who had just two shots on goal in the match, never seriously threatened the lead. Coronado had a chance to add an insurance goal late, but her shot from inside the box bounced off the right post.

The win leaves CHS one win shy of the school record, set in 2018 (14-4-1) under veteran coach Traci Sievers. Clovis also had a 13-win campaign in 2015.

The 5-8 seeds will host the 9-12 seeds in next week's first round, meaning the Lady Cats expect to be traveling. The final three rounds will be played in Albuquerque.

"We're a good traveling team," Coronado said. "It'd be nice to play at home in front of our fans, but it doesn't really make that much difference."

Rodriguez is also ready to hit the road, assuming they get in.

"I'm good with that," he said. "I think we're a pretty good road team."

Clovis boys 2, Roswell High 1 - At Roswell, the Wildcats capped a tough season with a district win over the Coyotes, possibly knocking Roswell High out of a postseason berth.

"It was a tough year, but if we'd stayed healthy early on it might been different," veteran CHS boys coach Greg Trujillo said. "We've been playing decent soccer, but we got hurt by not having a deep bench."

Among those returning for this match was senior defender Daniel Hernandez, and Trujillo said his presence made a big difference.

"He gave us what we needed on defense, and in the air," he said. "They tried to beat us with a lot of through balls, but our defense held up pretty good today."

Roswell High (11-7-1, 4-2 district), which fell out of a tie for the top spot with Hobbs, scored early in the first half. The Cats (6-14, 3-3) tied it midway through the half on junior midfielder Drex Carter's low shot found the back of the net, then got the match-winner early in the second canto when junior forward Angel Nunez caught the keeper away from the net and punched it home.

PHS girls fall short - At Portales, the Lady Rams hoped to finish up with a winning record but came up short, erasing a 2-0 halftime deficit to pull even before Roswell Goddard claimed a 3-2 win in District 4-4A.

Sophomore Lexi Pinon scored her second goal of the match with about 10 minutes remaining to give the Lady Rockets (9-11, 5-1 district) the victory and a share of the district title with Artesia. Portales (8-9, 2-4) had pulled even on goals by junior Adeli Hernandez and eighth-grader Maria Lujan in the first part of the second segment.

"It was a good game," PHS girls coach Bonnie Britton said. "They (Lady Rockets) played a tough schedule, they played a lot of 5A teams, and it definitely showed in the way they played."

On the other hand, the Lady Rams (8-9, 2-4) made major strides this season after going 0-6 and scoring just one goal in their COVID-abbreviated spring slate. They will lose just four seniors.

"I think, overall, we had a pretty good season," Britton said.

In boys action, the Rams (4-12, 0-6) finished off their campaign on Thursday with a 7-1 setback at Artesia (12-6-2, 4-2).