Cats pull away after halftime, beat Rams 5-1

Sep. 21—The Clovis High boys soccer team got off to a bit of a slow start, but in the end the Wildcats had too much for Portales High.

Four second-half goals gave the Cats firm control in a 5-1 victory on Wednesday at the PHS pitch. The match had been slated for Tuesday, but was pushed back a day due to lightning.

Senior forward Anthony Cordova gave the Rams a 1-0 lead early in the contest, but senior forward Ihab Mesbah headed in the equalizer off a corner kick from freshman defender/midfielder Ryan Worley and the teams went into halftime tied 1-1.

Mesbah added the go-ahead goal early in the second stanza, also off a Worley assist, and the Cats (9-2) pulled away from there for their fifth win in a row.

"I thought we were finally able to set the tone, and we started to play better," CHS coach Greg Trujillo said.

In addition to Mesbah's two goals, Worley collected three assists. Clovis outshot the Rams 16-6 and posted an 8-2 margin in corner kicks.

Sophomore forward/midfielder Damian Navarrette, freshman midfielder/defender Irving Mendoza and sophomore forward/midfielder Aldo Herrera added insurance goals for the Cats.

"They still kept coming at us," Trujillo said. "We missed a lot of (other scoring) opportunities."

Senior keeper Angel Avila finished with five saves for Clovis. Junior defender Luis Meza, filling in at goalkeeper due to injury, was able to stop 11 shots for the Rams (4-4).

"Our boys played hard," Portales coach Dustin Harden said. "We held on for the first half, but they just outran us in the second half."

Clovis traveled to Albuquerque to face Del Norte on Saturday. The Cats' next outing is a 2 p.m. tilt next Saturday at Taos, their final pre-district contest.

Meantime, PHS soccer squads were in Albuquerque over the weekend for four-team tournaments hosted by Sandia Prep. The Rams begin District 4-4A action at 6 p.m. on Thursday at Roswell Goddard.

Clovis 4, Roswell Goddard 3 (girls, Tuesday) — In the closing moments of Thursday's match at Leon Williams Stadium, Clovis High's Jaya Gonzales found herself in a surprising position.

About 30 yards from the Goddard goal, a loose ball came her way, and she made the most of it. The Gattis Middle School eighth-grader lifted a shot just over the reach of the Lady Rockets junior goalkeeper Kailani Houghtby and into the net with about a minute left, securing the win for the Lady Wildcats (4-7-2).

"I thought, 'I've got to do this for my seniors,'" said Gonzales, who tallied her third goal of the campaign. "I wasn't expecting it. I was just happy it went in."

Down 2-0 early in the second half, Clovis tied the game on goals by senior forward Natalie Griego and junior xxx Anesa Maltos in a span of less than five minutes. Goddard retook the lead with a goal with about 12 1/2 minutes, left, but the Lady Cats retied it on junior forward Ava Evans' penalty-kick goal with 10 minutes remaining.

That brought it down to the end, and lightning struck with the match seemingly headed into overtime.

"It was very nerve-racking," Gonzales said. "(At that point, with the referee keeping time on the field) you don't know if there's 30 seconds left, or two.

"I was very happy I made that goal for my team."

The Lady Cats are getting ready for District 4-5A play, Their final pre-district match, scheduled for Saturday at home against Centennial, was postponed on Friday due to the threat of inclement weather, and coach Ray Rodriguez said the schools will make a decision early this week as to whether it will be made up.

"It was two totally different halves," Rodriguez said of Thursday's tilt. "We finally started to move the ball in the second half and made some good attacking runs."

After going 0-3-2 in their previous five outings, Rodriguez was hoping the win helps his team build some momentum heading into district play, which starts at Carlsbad on Oct. 1.

"This is exactly what this will give us," he said of Thursday's win. "These girls needed to see that they could do something."