Lady Cats finish second in Goddard tourney

ROSWELL — Looking to find their identity, the relatively inexperienced Clovis High girls soccer team earned a spot in the finals of a tournament hosted by Roswell Goddard on Saturday before losing to district rival Carlsbad 7-2.

The Lady Wildcats (3-3), who beat Silver 4-2 in Friday’s quarterfinals, advanced to the title match with a 7-1 thumping of the host Lady Rockets in Saturday’s semifinals.

Carlsbad, though, proved to be a little too much to handle.

The Cavegirls opened a 5-0 lead before Audrey Rodella scored off an assist by Taisha Bosque in the final minute of the opening half. Taylor Corley added the Lady Cats’ other goal on a penalty kick.

CHS girls coach Shane Leatherwood said his team got behind 4-0 in the first 12 minutes.

“Right after they scored that fourth goal, I think we decided to play,” he said. “We missed a couple of 1-on-1 opportunities in the first half or you could’ve been looking at a 4-3 or 5-3 game.

“We just started too late. We can play with them; it’s just a matter of whether we can play with them for 80 minutes.”

The Lady Cats were almost as dominant as Carlsbad had been in their semifinal match with Goddard (2-4).

Cynthia Madrid and Taisha Bosque scored two goals apiece while Airen Martin added a goal and two assists. Kelsey Foster had a late goal on assists by Desiree Parraz and Audrey Rodella, while Rodella tallied on a rebound shot.

Clovis will open its home schedule with a 3 p.m. match on Saturday against Santa Fe High, a contest scheduled for Leon Williams Stadium.

Cats lose to Piedra Vista — The Clovis boys dropped a 2-0 decision to Piedra Vista on Saturday in their final game of a tournament at Los Alamos.

The Panthers broke a scoreless tie with a goal about a minute into the second half, then iced the win with a score off a penalty kick with about five minutes left.

“We had some opportunities to score as well,” CHS boys coach Greg Trujillo said. “They converted (their chances), and we didn’t.”

Goalkeeper Chris Slonniker made 12 saves for the Wildcats, while Trujillo said Izzy Miranda, Jesus Loya and Alejandro Rascon paced the offensive effort. Senior defender Baron Fillpot represented the Cats on the all-tournament team.

Trujillo said that because of yellow cards, the Cats played a man down for about the last 25 minutes.