NMMI Sports Press

The third time’s the charm for head coach John Barbour and the New Mexico Military Institute soccer team as the Colts downed the Sandia Prep Sundevils, 4-2, in the NMAA Class A-3A State Championship.

The Colts had been to two previous title tilts over the past four seasons, but fell just short of the first-place blue trophy, dropping a heartbreaker in OT penalty kicks to St. Mike’s in 2019, and a 5-2 loss in 2021 to the Sundevils.

As been the case during the entire 2023 post-season playoff campaign, the Colt offense took control of the game early, scoring two goals within the first ten minutes of play.

Senior striker Daniel De Rueda got the first goal for the Institute, less than three minutes from the opening kick, on a corner-kick assist from senior midfielder Fabrizio Cano.

Six minutes later, senior halfback Humberto Valdez dribbled through traffic to put NMMI up 2-0.

Momentum then shifted to Sandia Prep as they increased their offensive efforts to try and close the gap before the end of the half. The Colt backline defenders – who played a spectacular game all night long – managed to hold off a Sundevil score until the nine-minute mark.

But the Colts answered back almost immediately with Valdez – named the game’s MVP – knocking in his second score of the evening on a cross from senior David Portugal.

Up 3-1 at halftime, the Colts increased their lead on another excellent assist from Portugal, this time to junior forward Sawyer Hull, about four minutes into the second period.

Sandia Prep came back with a goal about six minutes later, making it 4-2.

And that’s when the NMMI fullbacks, along with freshman goalkeeper Rodolfo Anaya really went to work. Junior Javier Yepiz and senior Caser Calderon prevented any sort of quality crosses from the wings, and junior Nicholas Barcenas smothered anything that came down the middle, holding the top-ranked Sundevil offense scoreless for the final 30 minutes.

“I’ve been doing this now for 18 years and we’ve been close twice,” said head coach John Barbour about taking home the blue trophy this year. “This one is for all of those teams that got so far and did so well. This is not only a team win, but an NMMI win, for all our cadets.”

“This was just a great team win,” reiterated Barbour. “Sandia managed to prevent Portugal, our top goal scorer, from scoring, but we were able to get other people involved and get goals from other players, such as center backs scoring on corner kicks. Tonight was just an all-round team win.”