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Girls Soccer

Across all classes, the girls soccer brackets played out according to seeding with one outlier.

#1 Cleveland and #4 Eldorado both won their games 3-0. They will face off in the semifinals Nov 8, 5:30pm at Cleveland.

The outlier of semifinalists, #6 Volcano Vista went down south and handed #3 Las Cruces their first loss of 2023 to advance.

La Cueva survived a scare from Albuquerque High. The Bulldogs came out strong, jumping out to an early 1-0 lead and dominating the rest of the first half. La Cueva eventually fought back to tie the game off of a Makayla Chavez goal, forcing overtime. In OT, Tessa Updegraff capitalized on a scoring opportunity for the golden goal. Volcano Vista and La Cueva will have their semifinal match at 6pm at the APS Soccer Complex on Nov 8.

In 4A, #1 Hope Christian steamrolled Goddard, 10-0. Seniors, Savannah Sanchez and Ava Martinez had hat tricks. Albuquerque Academy, St. Pius X, and Los Alamos easily advanced to the semifinals as well.

For A-3A, the top four seeds each strolled into the semis. #1 Sandia Prep will face #4 St. Michael’s on Nov 7, 1pm at Sandia Prep.

#2 Bosque advanced after having four different goal scorers. Rose Candelaria had a goal and an assist. Ainsely Capps, Brooklyn Bird, and Layla Chimenti added the other goals. Bosque will host #3 Ruidoso on Nov 7 at Bosque, kickoff will be at 2pm.

Boys Soccer

The boys 5A bracket also has the top four seeds in the semis. #1 Hobbs is still undefeated after taking care of #8 Gadsden, 4-2.

In a showdown of the Hawks, #4 Centennial came out on top over #5 Volcano Vista, 2-1. Hobbs will host Centennial at 6pm on Nov 8.

The closest 5A quarterfinal match was #3 Atrisco Heritage vs #6 Organ Mountain. Atrisco senior, Marco Lara, scored two goals to help the Jaguars win 3-2.

#2 La Cueva cruised into the semis with a 4-0 victory over Albuquerque. La Cueva faces Atrisco Heritage on Nov 8 at 6pm out at the APS Soccer Complex.

In 4A, #1 St. Pius easily handled #9 Lovington, 5-0. The Sartans continue to look unstoppable in their class.

#4 Los Alamos and #5 Santa Teresa stretched their game to the max as they needed a shootout after finishing regulation tied, 1-1. Santa Teresa took the match after winning in PK’s, 4-3. Santa Teresa will travel to face St. Pius at home on Nov 8 at 1:30pm.

#3 Hope Christian beat #6 Goddard, 3-1 to advance. They will take on Albuquerque Academy on Nov 8 at 1pm at Academy.

#2 Albuquerque Academy and #7 Highland faced off in what turned out to be the best quarterfinal game across all the classes. Academy looked to be strolling to a win as they led at the half, 4-1, with goals from Maks Giermakowski, Grady Gilchrist and two from Luke Babinski. But, Highland did not go down so easily. The Hornets swarmed back with a flurry of goals in the second half. With a score of 4-3, Academy found themselves playing a man down as they had a player receive a red card after his second yellow of the game. The Chargers put up a monumental effort to keep the Hornets from scoring an equalizer but eventually gave up the goal. When Highland had taken all the momentum and the match appeared to be headed to overtime, Gilchrist struck again to put Academy up for good in the waning moments of regulation.

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