NMMI Sports Press
The New Mexico Military Institute Colt soccer team blanked the Hatch Valley Bears in the opening round of the NMAA Soccer Class A-3A State Playoffs, 4-0.
The Colts – seeded No. 2 in the eight-team playoff bracket – scored three goals early in the first half, putting extra pressure on the seventh-seeded Bears to try and play for the comeback on the road.
Senior midfielder David Portugal got the first goal for the Institute on a penalty kick about three minutes into the contest. The penalty was an illegal handball deflection by a Hatch defender during a close-range shot on goal by senior striker Humberto Valdez.
NMMI quickly scored again about three minutes later, this time on a lead pass from junior halfback Javier Yepiz to senior forward Fabrizio Cano. Cano ran by his defender, then placed a low-roller past the charging Bear goalie into the bottom left corner of the net.
The third goal came on a quick sequence of plays during an indirect kick. After a tripping call about 10-yard inside of the midfield line, Portugal let fly a hard, but high shot towards the center of the goal, hoping for a header by a teammate. A Hatch defender got their first, but his header went right to senior forward Luis Patron. Patron’s ensuing shot caromed off another Hatch player, straight to Yepiz, and Yepiz blasted it into the right side of the goal.
In the second half, the Bears upped their attack on offense, resulting in at least of trio of solid scoring opportunities, but each time came up empty.
The Colts were content to mostly stay back, play defense and take time off the clock.
NMMI’s final goal came in last two minutes. Portugal got a short backward pass in the center of the field about 30 yards from the goal from senior striker Daniel De Rueda. While looking for a teammate to pass the ball off to, he dribbled around his defender and realized there was a seam between the two fullbacks coming in to help from the outside. He fired off a shot between them to the left side of the goal past a diving Hatch keeper.
“Any time you can win in the state tournament, it’s a blessing,” said NMMI head coach John Barbour. “Hatch gave us a good dogfight, but we really worked on our attack and got three goals early. That allowed us to get a lot of people in, get some playing time and experience the state tournament. That’s a definite benefit for us going forward.”
Next up in the semi-finals will be the No. 3 seed, Las Vegas Robertson. Robertson won their 1st round contest over No. 6 Oak Grove Classical Academy, 9-2.
As the higher seed, NMMI will host that game on Tuesday, Nov. 7 at Stapp Parade Field on the NMMI campus with a scheduled 3:00 PM start time.