ON TAP Mountainair’s homecoming game is fast approaching. Come to Mountainair on Friday night at 7 p.m. to show support for the Mustangs as they take on Springer.
SPORTS
Thursday, October 22, 2015 Page 7
TITLE REMATCH
PUTTING UP A GOOD FIGHT
IAIN WOESSNER/TELEGRAPH
RORY MCCLANNAHAN/TELEGRAPH
Jamie Westerfield and Chris Carrasco, not in pink, from B&D Industries, Inc. present a $1,700 big check to the East Mountain High volleyball team as primary sponsor for the Dig Pink event on Oct. 16.
Dig Pink foe just too tall
Despite victory, coach says the team needs to play a lot better
Iain Woessner
Mountain View Telegraph
By Rory McClannahan Mountain View Telegraph
G
Athlete of the Week It’s been a long time coming, but Honza Pavlok could have earned a spot in this section of our paper weeks ago. Normally there’s a lot of sermons about virtue that precede these and some key character trait that earned the player their title, but brass tacks: Pavlok is just PAVLOK: a damn fine soccer player. Does it all He’s skilled, he’s aggressive, for Moriarty he passes when he needs to pass and he can put in a soccer ball in a pinch. He made a single goal against St. Pius last Thursday that saved the game and Moriarty’s honor, and that’s hardly the first time he’s come through in the clutch. Pavlok is a foreign exchange student from the Czech Republic and is currently staying in Edgewood with a foster family, the Monahans, whose son also attends Moriarty High School and is on the cheer squad. Big, tough, good-natured and able to play ball, to say nothing of thriving in a foreign land, Pavlok easily claims the title of the Mountain View Telegraph’s Athlete of the Week.
Estancia still too much for Clayton ■
East Mountain gives its all, but Portales comes out ahead
oing into last Friday’s District 4-4A match-up against Portales, the East Mountain High volleyball team knew they had an uphill battle. Actually, it was more of a front-line battle against a Rams team that brags two players taller than 6-foot and two others close to that height. And Portales used their height advantage to take out the Timberwolves 3-0. East Mountain finds itself at a disadvantage in district play in both its boys and girls sports. When districts were realigned two years ago, the state’s charter and private schools were placed in classes one step higher than reflected in their enrollment. East Mountain — with a student population around 350 — went from a 2A school to a 4A school. That means they compete against schools like Portales — with a high school enrollment of nearly 800 — in district play. First year Coach Kasi Harris was sanguine about the situation — those are the cards they’ve been dealt, she said. “We’re working at building this program and we have the support of not only the players, but their parents as well,” Harris said. Last year, the Timberwolves were only able to win two matches. Heading into this weekend, they have notched five wins this season. Last Friday’s match, though, was about more than district matches. It was the annual Dig Pink event, in which money raised would go to the Side Out Foundation to raise awareness and fight breast cancer. Harris said more than $1,200 in cash donations have been raised through the event,
Adam Lujan makes a run for the goal line during Estancia’s spirited football game against Clayton on Friday. Lujan would make the team’s final touchdown of the night, contributing to the final winning score of 19-9.
Angela Zamora gets the ball over the net during East Mountain’s volleyball match against Portales, which won the battle 3- 0. and the team is still working on collecting more. What made the event truly special is that B&D Industries, Inc. stepped forward to be the event sponsor. In addition to $500 donated to the cause, the company paid for all members of the East Mountain volleyball program to have special jerseys. Harris, who works at B&D said she had gone to her bosses asking if they would like to help and was surprised at the amount they committed. “Everyone knows someone who is fighting cancer,” Harris said. “The owners of the company told us, ‘We’ll do what we can to help out,’ and they really did.” As for the match, there was some hope early that the Rams only looked intimidating. Although they jumped to an early lead, the Timberwolves were able to stick with them, holding Portales’ lead to two. However, once the Timberwolves got their sixth point on an errant Rams serve into the net, Portales cranked up their front line with a series of kills that soon had the score at 8-19. The East Mountain girls were able to sneak a few tips over the net for several points, but Portales kept firing away at them.
Clayton and Estancia’s football teams clashed in Estancia last Friday night, re-creating last year’s state championship game and repeating its outcome as well, Estancia coming out on top 19-9. “We are nowhere near where we need to be,” Coach Stewart Burnett said postgame. “Anybody who thinks otherwise doesn’t have a clue. We just got to focus on us, because we’re going to play a team like Clayton again, and we’re going to have to play a heck of a lot better than we did tonight.” For Burnett, this game was a chance to pit his team, currently ranked first in the state, against somebody who could hit them back hard and challenge their complacency. He certainly got his wish, as Estancia had its first game of the season that wasn’t decidedly one-sided. See ESTANCIA on PAGE 10
GIRLS VOLLEYBALL
East Mountain’s Bianca Delgado and Angela Zamora go for the block in the match See PINK on PAGE 11 against Portales.
IAIN WOESSNER/TELEGRAPH
SOCCER
Moriarty hangs on to tie St. Pius Pintos win battle; avoid another loss to top team ■
Iain Woessner
Mountain View Telegraph
Moriarty’s Fighting Pintos made history Thursday when they had a rematch against St. Pius, who descended from their hallowed heights to suffer a draw on Moriarty’s pitch, 1-1 final score. “I feel pretty good about it,” Coach Jordan Allcorn said postgame. “Obviously, as a competitor I wanted to win … (but) we battled. We only allowed one goal. That was the killer last game … we made sure they had to earn it this time.” As far as anyone at the pitch knew, this was the first time that the Pintos had anything but a loss to the Sartans in boys soccer. St. Pius is the fourth-ranked soccer IAIN WOESSNER/TELEGRAPH team in New Mexico, and their prowess Joshua McCleave took on all comers last Thursday had already been well demonstrated when St. Pius came to town to have a rematch with when they crushed Moriarty almost Moriarty. With their previous defeat still fresh in their two weeks prior. Moriarty hasn’t made See SOCCER on PAGE 11
minds, Moriarty fought the Sartans tooth and claw and netted a 1-1 draw.
Savanna Chavez was a relentless asset for Estancia, never giving up no matter how tough the opposition got. Her unwillingness to let an errant ball go allowed Estancia to take and keep the lead in three sets, beating East Mountain on Tuesday night 3- 0.
Estancia pounds E. Mountain 3-0 Iain Woessner
Mountain View Telegraph
Estancia invited East Mountain down for a stormy volleyball game on Tuesday night, which ended with thunderous triumph for the Bears, who clinched it 3-0. “I’m definitely proud,” Estancia coach Alicia Pope said postgame. “Honestly, we’ve played (East Mountain) before and we knew what to expect. They’ve definitely improved…but we just had to come out and do what we had to do.” A pregame power surge added a little excitement to the game’s preamble, but the lights remained luminous throughout the intense duel between Estancia and East Mountain. The first set was defined by a careful tango between the two teams, neither one holding a lead for longer than a point. See ESTANCIA on PAGE 10
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Mountain View Telegraph
Thursday, October 22, 2015
Estancia hammers visiting E. Mountain 3-0 from PAGE 7
They took turns scoring and both sides put up some impressive plays, including an ace from East Mountain’s Camie Simkins and a strong opening salvo from Estancia’s Leanne Calhoon. Calhoon was part of a terrific trio of Estancia players who set the pace of the game, the other two being Taylor Smythe, who Maxpreps.com has ranked second in most digs of the season in the whole state, and Savanna Chavez, who got more kills than anyone else on her team and was an overall dominant force both offensively and defensively throughout the whole game. “Honestly, I felt really excited for my team,” Callie Larson of Estancia said after the game. “We had come together before the game like we hadn’t before and I felt like it was going to be a good game even before it started.” A pair of kills by Chavez and Marisa Luna put Estancia ahead for the remainder of the first set. Luna especially stole the show at the end, securing an ace before the set came crashing to an end, 25-15. East Mountain wasn’t ready to roll over, though — not with strong players like Meta White on their roster, who herself proved to be the most skillful server on the court that night, making a number of strong openings and even netting a few aces as well. It wasn’t enough to stop Larson, who was a solid brick wall between East Mountain and the kills they sought. While the second set was another back and forth for the first while, Larson made a key block and Chavez made a key kill and that gave Estancia yet another lead and the momentum to see it to the end. The second set concluded 25-19 in Estancia’s favor. “Last week we struggled; this week we came out really strong,” Chavez said in a postgame interview. “I thought (East Mountain) was going to be tough and they were, but we dominated.” East Mountain refused to give up, even when down by two, and the third set was the tensest of them all, with neither team capable of breaking out of the stalemates that had defined the whole game. Back and forth they went; Kirstyn
IAIN WOESSNER/TELEGRAPH
Estancia’s Lady Bears put up a spectacular performance on Tuesday night, sending visiting East Mountain packing with a 3-0 clean sweep.
Taylor Smythe was versatile as ever on Tuesday night, forming a solid foundation for Estancia’s winning plays against visiting East Mountain, whom they crushed 3-0. Rhodes got a solid block for East Mountain; Anna Bishop got one not long after for Estancia. Calhoon got a kill, Larson kept the tie going with another block. It all came down to the last points of the game, with a kill from Rhodes setting the score at 20-20. Then, Chavez steppe d up and got a kill; Bishop got a follow-through. For a moment, East Mountain looked poised to fight back and
tie the game again, but after a long, grueling climax, it was Chavez who took the final kill and won the game, 25-22, 3-0, in Estancia’s favor. “I just wanted to come out and do the best I could,” White said after the game. “Even if we lost we still showed that we came to compete and we tried our best. It’s not about winning, but enjoying the game Anna Dauk gets ready to send up the ball during East Mountain’s tempestuous clash with Estancia on the volleyball court Tuesday night. East Mountain lost the game after three tense sets. itself.”
Estancia downs Clayton yet again from PAGE 7
It took Moises Anaya almost two whole minutes to get his now routine game-opening touchdown, for instance. Most particularly, though, was that this was a game defined not by Estancia’s typically outstanding offensive drives, but instead by its equally as stout but often overlooked defensive line. Gabriel Garcia and Michael Garcia proved themselves an impassable wall, and their actions this game were instrumental to Estancia’s close win. “All week (our coaches) had been pounding into our heads that we have to stop them, stop them,” Gabriel said in a postgame interview. “At first (Michael) was at nose and I was at tackle, and later I asked coach to put me on nose … and we started blowing things up.” Clayton put up little of note in their counter offensive, and Estancia’s second possession had an eight-yard rush by Zeke Tapia followed by a 50-yard charge by Anaya, who got a second touchdown with 7:51 on the clock. The game was barely started, and Estancia was up 13-0. This was looking to be business as usual, but Clayton wasn’t going to settle for being yet another stepping stone for Estancia’s relentless advance up the ranks. They fought back, and fought back hard, overcoming Tapia and Matthew Urban’s defensive efforts and succeeded in bringing the ball up to the end zone. They were first and goal with only five yards between them and the goal line. They gained two, and then they gained another two. Fourth down saw less than a foot separating them and a score. Unfortunately for Clayton, that foot was occupie d by Gabriel Garcia, who alongside Michael drove Clayton back, denying them the goal so tantalizingly close to success. It was the most dramatic moment of the game, and the tipping point that Estancia needed. The first quarter ended 13-0. “We’d been practicing at those positions longer than we’d been switching,” Michael said after the game. “We were
IAIN WOESSNER/TELEGRAPH
Estancia’s Bears and Clayton’s Yellowjackets once more squared off on Estancia’s home field Friday night, recreating the state championship game from last season and also repeating its outcome, Estancia winning 19-9.
Adam Lujan maneuvers around a Clayton defender during Friday’s tense football game between Estancia and Clayton, with a strong Estancia victory of 19-9. expecting the best out of Clayton, and they gave us a heck of a game, but I know we’re a lot better than that. We had the potential to beat them by 30 more points.” Clayton had a lot going for it, and it showed its hand in the second quarter, making its first interception of the game off a long pass from Isaiah Chavez. Picking the ball up at the 33-yard line, they had a long, grueling campaign against the mountainous Garcias and every other defensive player Estancia could throw into them. Despite its best efforts, Estancia couldn’t keep
them from advancing, but they could slow them down enough that, with the quarter drawing slowly to a close, Clayton had no opportunity to make an attempt at a touchdown. They settled for a field goal, and put up the first half’s final score, 13-3. The third quarter opened up with a Clayton possession, but it didn’t go anywhere. A punt return saw Adam Lujan run a touchdown, but a flag on the play saw that recanted. Lujan would get his touchdown in the end, a little while later, with Anaya and Tapia taking turns to bring the ball up to the front
line, and then Lujan bringing it in for the goal. With the score 19-3 at the end of the third, the final quarter rolled in with a successful pass to Caleb Ortiz… and a successful fumble recovery the very next play, putting the ball in Clayton’s hands. It was the first of several turnovers in the final quarter, all of which culminated in a key interception by the Yellowjackets in the last five minutes of play. Clayton got the ball and in four downs made a scoring run, rushing 49 yards after feinting a punt, securing a shocking touchdown and setting up the game’s final score, 19-9. It was a close shave for Estancia, and not one its coaches were particularly please d about. “We knew it was a punt and we knew what was about to happe n,” De fe nsive Coach Eric Lucero said of the lategame Clayton touchdown. “I don’t know what happened, but nobody could get a tackle against him. When you’re up against a team with strong runners, you got to make good tackles. We learned a lot from this game. We played a team that hit us in the mouth and we saw what we need to work on.” Estancia is approaching the end of district play, and remains undefeated, 7-0.
Sports In Brief EMHS cheer, dance tryouts Oct. 26-29 East Mountain is hosting tryouts for its inaugural dance/cheer team on Oct. 26-29, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Roosevelt Middle School Gym. Those interested should come with their current physical results in hand and must attend three out of four tryouts to be considered. Information about athletic physicals and athletic fees is available at www. eastmountainhigh.net. For more information, contact Stephanie Schuette at sschuette@ eastmountainhigh.net or contact coach Stefanie Portillos at 505-366-3582.
Salzwedel at 286-1601. Participants may register online or pick up forms at the church. As part of the registration process, the Upward Evaluations are on Thursday from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. There will be large inflatable jumpers, free ice cream — compliments of Twist and Turn — and free Trail Rider pizza for the first 75 participants. There also will be a car show in the parking lot from 5 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. The evaluation activities are sponsored in part by the Mountain View Telegraph. If you wish to display a car, contact Vern Willan at 238-2038 or by email at willan10@msn.com.
E. Mountain High Upward basketball wants photos and cheer camp
Registration is now open for the upcoming 2015-16 boys and girls Upward Basketball/ Cheerleading program held at Mountainside Methodist Church in Cedar Crest. This is for children in kindergarten through eighth grade. Registration costs $78 for the entire season, a package that includes eight games, a uniform, an end-of-season celebration and additional perks. More information is available at www.MUMSM. org or by calling Dan
East Mountain High School is encouraging any parents of an EMHS athlete traveling to away games to consider bringing a camera and taking photographs. With a large number of away games this fall season, it would be a huge help to the school if there were parents willing to take photographs of away games so that the entire season can be documented. If you would like to borrow a camera, or if you have pictures to share, please contact Lori Webster at 505-241-9078 or lwebster@ eastmountainhigh.net.
COMING UP from PAGE 9
this free workshop.
Resume workshop Turkey Bingo set coming Nov. 10 for Moriarty church The New Mexico Workforce Connection will hold a resume and online job application workshop on Nov. 10 at 9 a.m. at the Estancia Public Library. Participants will learn how to build a resume and post it to online job sites. Call 384-9655 to sign up for
The Sanctuary Zone is sponsoring a fund-raising Turkey Bingo on Nov. 14 at the Catholic Church Hall in Moriarty from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cards will be $1 each or six for $5. There will be plenty of prizes and plenty of food.
Thursday, October 22, 2015 11
Mountain View Telegraph
Underdog Cubs cast magic spell over their fans
V
ery well then, so it has become time to talk about the Chicago Cubs. I know you’ve all been dreading this moment like the coming of Apophis, the great comet that’s arriving in 2029 with intent to obliterate us all in the all-consuming fires of cosmos. Nevertheless, I am left with no recourse but to talk about it. The Chicago Cubs haven’t even gone to a World Series in over a century and that is, statistically, incredible. It has been such that they have lost for far longer than they have ever been able to win, but I am not certain whether I’d call their failure to secure a
IAIN WOESSNER
baseball could be described as “overwhelming odds.” I grew up in a household that worshipped the Cubs. My grandfather grew up in Indiana, close enough to Chicago to be caught in the inexplicable sphere of influence and adoration that emanates from Wrigley Field like a sublimiMountain View Telegraph nal radio broadcast. My dad loved the Cubs. My earliest memories are of him shouting title to be an actual loss. at the TV screen to inspire The Cubs themselves his Cubbies to play correctly. now have an identity based Right now, as I type this, I am upon losing. They are the looking at Facebook photos perennial underdogs. Eternally struggling against over- showing a pie that my grandmother baked that has the whelming odds … although words “GO CUBS” baked into that statement loses a little punch when you consider that the very flakes of its golden for them, the entire world of crust.
COMING UP IN SPORTS Football Estancia journeys to Dulce on Friday for an away game to kick off at 7 p.m. Estancia remains undefeated this season. n Moriarty will host St. Pius X on Friday to begin at 7 p.m. n Mountainair has its homecoming game on Friday squaring off against Springer at 7 p.m. n
Boys Soccer Moriarty has its final district game against Albuquerque Academy on Thursday at 4 p.m. This will be a home game. n East Mountain hosts Portales on Saturday to close out their season with a 3 p.m. showdown. n Manzano hosts Del Norte on Thursday at 3:30 p.m. n
Girls Soccer Moriarty closes out its district games with an away game at
n
Albuquerque Academy on Thursday at 4 p.m. n East Mountain hosts Portales on Saturday at 1 p.m.
But I don’t know, I’m not sure how electrified I am about this, honestly. The Cubs are already down two games against the Mets, so this World Series dream may be over by the time this column goes to print, so maybe this is all anyone is going to get, the cruelest tease of glory. The thing is, I’ve watched the Cubs lose most of my sports-viewing life. They lose a lot. They are expected to lose and they do not disappoint those expectations. True, I’ll grant, this gives their incidental victories all the more of a satisfying oomph, but it doesn’t change the fact that I know how this song ends. I’ve seen it all
before. In a way, I think if the Cubs win, they may just lose the only thing people care about them for: their underdog status. Because if they win, now, they’ll be just like everyone else again. Maybe they want that recognition, but their brand name is seeped in failure. It’s baffling that in America, where we view failure as the ultimate of sins, a team that never achieves the greatness we so fervently fetishize is one of the most recognizable and successful brands in all of sports. Once they lose that, what do they have? Besides a really good pitcher I mean.
Dig Pink foes are just too tall
Volleyball Moriarty will host Grants on Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. for a district showdown. n Mountainair will travel to Jemez Valley on Thursday at 5 p.m. n East Mountain journeys to Portales on Saturday for a 3 p.m. match. They will go to LagunaAcoma on Tuesday to play them at 6 p.m. n Estancia travels to NACA on Thursday for a 5 p.m. game. n
Cross Country Friday will have Moriarty traveling to Grants for a cross country invite, starting at 9 a.m. n East Mountain will go to Los Alamos on Friday for a 9 a.m. meet. n
SPORTS ROUNDUP Telegraph Staff Report
I was once captured by this great spirit of love and loyalty for the Cubs and even now I can’t help but feel a faint churning in my stomach at the exhilarating prospect that I will be lucky enough to witness the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series for the first time in 107 years. I’d be able to see history being made. And I find myself struggling to care. I don’t know, perhaps I’ve entered into a callow autumn of my young life where all of the halcyon glories of my youth appear bleak and black and grey, overshadowed by the technicolor nightmares of the adult world all around me. Perhaps I’m just cynical.
Thursday and lost again, 2-8.
The weather’s getting wetter, Girls Soccer the days are getting shorter. A Manzano couldn’t do much cold wind blows on our area to stop Eldorado, which overteams, so let’s get fired up with powered them last Thursday some sizzling scores hot off the with a dominant 7-0 defeat. grill. Here’s your roundup: Moriarty got trampled by St. Pius X last Thursday losFootball ing 10-0. Moriarty clobbered Grants mercilessly last Friday night, Volleyball claiming a smooth 36-0 victory. Moriarty sent Grants packManzano obliterated High- ing last Thursday with a clean land last Friday with a very 3-0 win. The Pintos lost at home solid 42-0 victory. on Tuesday to Academy, 3-1. Estancia had a hard fight Boys Soccer with Clayton on Friday but Manzano had trouble fol- came away the victor after five lowing up their paired vic- sets, winning 3-2. tories against Highland last Mountainair utterly anniweek, succumbing to a 5-0 loss hilated Tierra Encantada on to La Cueva on Oct. 13 and los- Thursday night, barely breaking 1-0 to Eldorado on Oct. 15. ing a sweat when they crushed East Mou nt a i n had a them in three sets, 3-0, with the rematch against the New opposing team never even scorMexico Military Institute last ing into the double digits.
The specially designed jerseys for East Mountain high’s Dig Pink event on Oct. 16. The jerseys were paid for by B&D Industries. from PAGE 7
The Rams took the first set on a 12-25 score. The second set seemed to find the Timberwolves rocked back on their heels. The Rams scored nine points before East Mountain made a mark in the score book. In the end, the second set should probably best be forgotten for its 5-25 score. The third set seemed like it was going to head the same way, with the Rams jumping out to an early 7-1 lead. Harris called a time out in order to get her girls settled. “I told them that they have to look at where we are as a team,” Harris said. “I reminded them that this game should be fun — if you aren’t having fun, you aren’t going to play well.” The speech must have worked well, because the Timberwolves made something of a run, bring themselves within striking distance of the Rams. While Portales threw everything at the East Mountain girls,
RORY MCCLANNAHAN/TELEGRAPH
East Mountain’s Anna Dauk slips the ball under two Portales defenders during the Dig Pink matchup between the teams on Oct. 16. the response from the Timberwolves was to play solid volleyball. The key to that play was senior libero Meta White. While neither team had a count on the number of saves White had in the match, in one volley she had three saves and was a spark for her team. White had an uncanny
ability to get under the balls that were being fired at the Timberwolves by Portales’ giants. Sporting a face mask, White seemed almost to be laughing at them, daring them to hit the ball at her. After the game she was just as effervescent, saying that she “loved” playing in the middle and having the ball fired at her. She’s got the battle scars to prove it,
too. She explained that she wears the mask because she broke her nose three times during her sophomore year. “I just love being libero; I love the competition,” White said. The Timberwolves were able to shake off their loss to Portales on Friday. By Saturday, they were traveling to Thoreau, were they won the match in straight sets.
Fighting Pintos battle to 1-1 draw with fierce rivals St. Pius from PAGE 7
a strong showing in the district games this year, although when faced with the two of the top-ranked teams in the state, there’s an unstated disadvantage at work. T hat d isadva nt age was absent last Thursday when the two teams met once more, a rematch that was anything but a repeat. P i ntos Capt a i n Joshu a McCleave, who had put up the solitary goal of their first encounter, didn’t score any goals for Moriarty this game, but did lead the charge down the pitch, crashing into the enemy side in determined play after determined play. Yet this was not an offensive game, but a defensive o n e . R ic h a r d V i l l a lob o s Jr. embo d ie d t h at spi r it , t h r ow i n g h i m s el f b o d i ly into every single Pius play, informing them with deed rather than word that none shall pass. Keaton Jones, st a lwa r t captain, was a sh ield to McCleave’s sword, coordinating a stern guard that rebuffed every Pius play. While the Sartans certainly were formidable, they could not make any points in the first half. Moriarty fought them to a standstill, and both teams had to settle on being close to scoring. The game didn’t heat up until the second half. “I’ve been here for four or five years and I’ve always wanted to beat Pius,” Villalobos Jr. said postgame. “I couldn’t let them score. I fought as hard as I could, and we got the tie. It was all I could do.”
Pius capitalized on a Pinto foul to put in a proper goal in the first minutes of the second. For the first 20 minutes of the half, Moriarty was once again fighting uphill. Franklin Rea was a jet plane on the pitch, moving with incredible speed, but unable to put it towards securing a goal. Ayden Greene was another fast runner, and a powerhouse kicker too, but he couldn’t get a play in, even when working in tandem with Gerardo Arguello, who was a bundle of energy the whole game, keeping his teammates going with boisterous enthusiasm. McCleave couldn’t make an offense work. Nobody could. Nobody save for Honza Pavlok, who burst through a midfield cluster of players and found himself ahead of the St. Pius lines. Their defenders were locked up near Moriarty’s goal, leaving scant defenders to watch their goal. Those defenders parted, revealing a key opening, and Pavlok went through. He drove the ball in, and uncontested, pu l led back and kicked, lashing the ball around St. Pius’ goalie and tying the game with 19:20 on the clock. “In our last game I said that we didn’t play so bad, we just made six or seven crucial mistakes,” Pavlok said. “Now they did it and I feel that that was probably why we scored. It was kind of a lucky goal. I can say I’m satisfied because this was probably the best result against Pius in Moriarty history but still I feel we could beat them.” It was a defining moment,
but St. Pius wasn’t going to realize how much so until the half was over. Wyatt Hart shored up the already strong Moriarty defense, assisting goalkeeper Lucas Shirley, who to his own credit occupied the goal the entire game and endured some very tricky shots without breaking. Even Jones dared to break off from defense to try and make a shot, but to no avail. T he second ha l f ended 1-1 and the game went into overtime. With the golden goal rule well in effect, all that was needed was a single goal from either team to end the game. St. Pius went all in, their best players filling in the ranks, and they went hard for the goal. It was a trial by fire for Moriarty’s defenders, but they were up to the task. Villalobos Jr. was the player of the day here, as St. Pius striker Julian Garcia broke through an increasingly more fatigued Moriarty line and had a perfect opportunity to make a shot…had Villalobos not blocked him, appearing seemingly out of thin air to block the shot right at the brink. The two teams battled at the precipice of victory and defeat, but despite their top ranking, their high stats, their powerful players or their legacy of 17 state championship titles, St. Pius could not break the Fighting Pintos. Twenty minutes later and the game was declared a draw. “They expect to always beat us,” Allcorn said. “That’s their expectation. Hopefully we can start to build to where our expectation is (the same).”
IAIN WOESSNER/TELEGRAPH
The sun sets on Moriarty’s Fighting Pintos who refused to lose to St. Pius, battling the Sartans into double overtime and ending the game with a 1-1 draw.
The Moriarty Pintos squared off with their fierce rivals, St. Pius X, last Thursday and sent them home humbled, fighting the fourth-ranked soccer team in all of New Mexico to a 1-1 draw.