By Eric Butler
MaxPreps.com
No one could blame Sandia supporters for feeling a huge amount of trepidation in the last half of the Class 5A girls soccer championship on Friday, Nov. 7.
Yes, the Matadors had a 1-0 lead over Eldorado. But this was the same field where Sandia blew a three-goal advantage in last year's 5A state title game to Rio Rancho.
In fact, the Matadors were defending the same goal at the Santa Ana Soccer Complex. But the Sandia senior in goal said she wasn't hearkening back to last year's heartbreak.
“Actually, no. It was a whole new game and a whole new year," said Sandia keeper Mikaela Bitner after her team claimed the 5A state championship by maintaining that 1-0 advantage. "It's just amazing – the best day of my life."
Bitner did have an extra bit of resolve, though, thanks to the 2007 disaster.
"There's no way they can score. Nothing is going to go through me. Everything is out," said Bitner of her thoughts down the stretch.
Sandia, which had avenged its loss to Rio Rancho the day before by beating the Rams in the semifinals, got its only goal of the game when super-frosh Victoria Barba found the net from 40 yards out in the 14th minute.
In the 5A boys finale, La Cueva capped a dominating year by blasting Mayfield 7-1 to seize the coveted blue trophy.
The rout began when Mitch Garver scored only seven minutes into the match. The Bears' offensive machine, spearheaded by the likes of forwards Lawrence Robledo and Carson Baldinger, continued to blast away against the underdogs as La Cueva finished the season with a sparkling 21-2 record.
In Class 4A, the Academy girls and the St. Pius boys triumphed over familiar rivals to win state championships.
Academy, in the girls contest, struggled mightily in the first half against Los Alamos. In fact, the Hilltoppers outshot the Chargers by a 10-to-1 margin in the first 40 minutes. But Academy coach Pete Clinch knew his team was still very much in the game.
"We just needed one opportunity and it didn't matter who gets it," Clinch said. "I knew one goal was going to win it either way, because that's the way finals usually go."
It was Chargers' senior Bridget Hill who took advantage of a bobbled ball by Los Alamos keeper Jenny Tumas, after a direct kick by Academy's Riah Risk, in the 67th minute. The rebound shot by Hill gave Academy a 1-0 win and its first state title since 2002.
"Oh my gosh, it was amazing. It just bounced out and I got in there and poked it," Hill said. "This was great. It being my senior year makes it even sweeter."
The boys 4A contest ended in a fashion ripe for controversy as St. Pius beat Academy 2-1 for the title.
Seven minutes into overtime, Academy was called for a foul in the penalty box when Chargers goalie Garrett Nygren collided with St. Pius forward Will Reardon.
The result was a penalty kick. The one-on-one opportunity wasn't wasted by Sartans' senior Ryan Blair, who kicked past Nygren for the winner – setting off yet another St. Pius celebration as the school won its seventh straight crown.
In the Class 1A-3A division, both the boys and girls finals featured Sandia Prep against underdog teams from Bosque School.
Much to the chagrin of the favored Sundevils, it was Bosque that earned its first state championships in the sport in both games.
In the last minute of regulation in the 1A-3A girls soccer championship, Bosque School head coach Ed Cole's mind began to wander.
"I was already thinking about overtime. I thought, 'What are we going to do? How are we going to keep the momentum,'" Cole said.
A minute later, the buzzer sounded and jubilant fans of the west side Albuquerque school were rushing the field to congratulate Cole's state champion Bobcats.
In the 79th minute, shortly after a couple of offensive penetrations from Sandia Prep on the other side of the field, a chance deflection suddenly sent the ball in the direction of Bosque junior Samantha Sheppard – alone and running toward the Prep goal.
At around the 20-yard mark, after Sundevils' keeper Tess Richey was forced to come forward, Sheppard shot the game-winner into the net.
"I don't even know what happened. I went for the goal, shot with my left foot and scored," Sheppard said. "I don't even remember how it got to me."
Sandia Prep scored the first goal of the game when sophomore Julia Thompson shot a ball that richocheted first off the right post and then off the left before trickling into the net.
Bosque evened the game in the first minute after halftime. After a foul was called on the Sundevils, Bobcats' senior Ali Fidel scored on an 18-yard direct kick – over a wall of Prep defenders, over the hands of Richey and just under the crossbar.
"I had been practicing them just before the game and I needed to get them an inch lower," Fidel said. "My club coach taught me how to strike it and I just try to do what I was told. And there it is."
In the boys championship, a 1-0 victory by Bosque School over Sandia Prep, the only goal came at the midway point of the second half and it came off the foot of an eighth-grader.
"It was all going in slow motion," Spencer said. "Felipe (Galvis, another Bobcats' eighth-grader) played a beautiful ball in to the inside of the box. The keeper came out and I just got a flick on to it – it just went over the keeper and went into the goal."
Sandia Prep's boys had won the two prior meetings between the finalists in regular season meetings.
"I think they wanted it worse than we did up until they got their goal," Sandia Prep coach Tommy Smith said. "Then, with 15 to 20 minutes to go, we just couldn't get a break. We pounded away and pounded away, but they had almost 11 guys back."
"Seven years at Bosque, we go from an unknown program to a state champion – that's very special," said victorious Bosque School coach Klaus Weber.
