Centennial shuts out Lady Cats

Centennial got an early goal, then stayed put for most of the rest of the day.

Clovis High’s soccer girls, though, couldn’t find the net and the Las Cruces-based Lady Hawks added a late insurance tally to claim a 2-0 win on Saturday at Leon Williams Stadium. The match was a makeup of a Sept. 21 contest postponed due to inclement weather.

Sophomore forward Cleo Coca tallied both goals for Centennial (7-7), which was in control much of the way and kept the Lady Cats (4-8-2) from finding many opportunities.

“We created some chances, but we just can’t finish,” Lady Cats coach Ray Rodriguez said. “If we’d finished our goals, it would’ve been a totally different game.”

Clovis had only one shot on goal the whole match. The team’s best chance probably came with about 15 minutes to go, when junior Kim Evans broke down the left side toward the goal, only to have her shot be off the mark.”

Centennial defeated the Lady Cats 6-0 in a season-opening tournament in Roswell. This time, Clovis put up more of a fight.

“We knew they were going to come out and play well,” Lady Hawks coach Alex Reyes said. “They didn’t make it easy for us.”

Coca took a feed from a teammate and pushed the ball out from about 10 feet out in the box. Her second goal, in the 64th minute, finally put the match out of reach.

“Our goal today was to control the ball,” Reyes said. “They gave us time and space, I felt we weren’t as creative and could’ve been.”

Centennial outshot the Lady Cats 6-1 on goal. Junior Andrea Chavez had four saves for Clovis.

The Lady Cats began District 4-5A play on Tuesday night at Carlsbad. They visit Hobbs on Saturday.

Clovis 3, Taos 2 (boys, Saturday) – The Wildcats extended their winning streak to seven matches, but it wasn’t easy.

Down 3-0, the Tigers (7-3-2) scored twice in the second half to make it interesting, but Clovis (11-2) was able to hang on for its seventh consecutive victory.

“We played good in the second half,” Cats coach Greg Trujillo said. “We had quite a bit of possession, and we moved the ball well.”

Senior forward Ihab Mesbah’s 23rd goal of the season, coming off an assist from sophomore forward/midfielder Damian Navarrette in the eighth minute, held up through halftime. Then junior forward Jose Herrera scored a goal and assisted on a tally by by junior forward/midfielder Felix Hernandez to build the lead to 3-0.

The Cats hosted Carlsbad on Tuesday night in their district opener at Leon Williams Stadium. On Saturday, they welcome Hobbs in a 3 p.m. matchup.