Hobbs posts shutout over Lady Cats

The score may have been close for a long time, but it was clear the Hobbs Lady Eagles were in the catbird seat most of the way in Saturday’s District 4-5A girls soccer match against Clovis High at Leon Williams.

Junior forward/midfielder Brianna Baker converted a tough-angle shot late in the first half, and senior forward Hannah Davila tacked on two late tallies for a 3-0 victory over CHS.

Hobbs (8-6-2, 2-0 district) outshot the Lady Cats 9-2 on goal and had a 4-1 edge in corner kicks. Most of the contest was played in Clovis’ end of the field.

“This team came out like they didn’t know how to play soccer, and they paid the price,” CHS coach Ray Ramirez said of his squad, which saw a seven-match winning streak come to an end.

Clovis (11-3-1, 1-1) held off the Lady Eagles until Baker worked her way down the right side and scored into a small window with about five minutes left in the half. Davila then beat CHS senior goalkeeper Aja Gonzales 1-on-1 with under eight minutes left, then found an empty net with four minutes to go when Gonzales came out in a futile attempt to challenge her.

“We finally got all 11 players going,” said Lady Eagles coach Mackenzie Tellez, in her eighth year with the program but first as head coach. “We’ve been struggling a little bit with effort, but today was the day. We were ready to play today.”

Hobbs had numerous opportunities to score during the match, but left a number of shots high or wide of the goal.

“When you’re not executing that’s what happens,” Rodriguez said. “When you’re constantly giving the ball back to them, that’s what happens.”

Clovis had just two shots on goal, both in the second half. The best scoring chance came about midway through the second half when senior midfielder Aspen Ulibarri launched a shot from about 40 yards out that Hobbs keeper Sabrina Marquez went up and deflected over the top of the goal.

Meantime, Gonzales finished with six saves.

Tuesday night, the Lady Cats continued district action at Roswell High. Their next outing is on Tuesday when they visit Carlsbad.

In a boys tilt at Hobbs, the unbeaten, Class 5A top-ranked Eagles cruised to a 9-1 victory over the Wildcats as eight players scored goals. Clovis (6-9, 1-1 district) saw a four-match winning streak come to an end.

Sophomore forward/midfielder Adrian Sanchez was the lone player with two goals for the Eagles (16-0, 2-0 district), who led 4-0 at halftime. Hobbs outshot Clovis 26-4 on goal.

The Cats were slated to play their first district home match on Tuesday night against Roswell High. They play the second of three consecutive home district tilts at 6 p.m. next Tuesday against Carlsbad.

Clovis teams compete at Artesia – Clovis’ girls were second while the boys finished third in Friday’s Artesia Invitational cross country meet.

Hobbs took both team titles, the Lady Eagles posting 31 points to edge Clovis (33) while the Eagles tallied 60 points to 67 for Artesia and 94 for the Cats in the nine-school competition.

Clovis put four runners in the top 10 and all seven in the top 20 in the girls’ 5K race, which included 47 runners. Junior Gabrielle Foggie was second for the Lady Wildcats in 18 minutes, 30 seconds, trailing Hobbs’ Bhret Clay (17:59).

Other Clovis finishes includes eighth-graders Rosalia Morales, fourth in 19:16, and Christina Waltrip, fifth in 19:29; sophomore Jarelly Navarrete, 10th in 20:16; eighth-grader Jalena Maldonado, 12th in 20:23; junior Kira Tree, 16th in 20:59, and senior Olumachi Anaele, 19th in 21:19.

For the boys, junior Sammy Fuentes finished third for the Wildcats with a time of 15:58. Alamogordo’s Omar Enriquez won it in 15:43.

Clovis coach Liz Ledezma said her squads will begin tapering down workouts after this week as they had towards state competition in early November.

Also for the Cats, junior Rudy Ledezma was 23rd in 17:36; sophomore Santiago Verdugo came in 17th in 21:17; junior Victor Sanchez placed 25th in 17:54, and eighth-graders Erik Cordum (18:20), Adrian Surita (18:05), Erik Cordum (18:20) and Ryder Bonney (19:38) ran 26th, 31st and 41st, respectively.

“We’ve just got to keep on track,” she said. “This should be our ‘peak’ week.

“I’ve never had girls running in the 19s before and I’ve never had as many boys break 18 (minutes) before.”

Next up for Clovis is the Hobbs Invitational on Thursday.

Friday, the CHS cross country program is sponsoring 1-mile and 5K fundraiser races at Hillcrest Park, to start at 6 p.m. Anyone interested may enter online on the CHS cross country facebook page, or at the race.