The highlight of Pojoaque Valley’s girls soccer team is its 10-player senior class, a huge group that has nearly all played together for four years.
“All of us seniors have been playing together since we were freshmen,” said team captain Elena Archuleta. “We’re able to put our chemistry together. And we’re really trying our best to create a program for the girls.”
The senior class is also the first class that coach Allison Garcia-Dowdy had as a teacher when she started middle-school science.
And yet, it is a freshman and eighth-grader who lead the team on the stat sheet. Freshman Mia Herrera has seven goals, and eighth-grader Natalie Romero has four, out of Pojoaque’s 18 total on the year.
“Having the seniors is really nice, because it gives the younger ones an example,” Garcia-Dowdy said. “But I think next year, we’ll be okay… It’s sad to see the seniors go, but it’s exciting to see the talent coming up.”
The Elkettes (2-10) lost 8-0 to Robertson on Sept. 29, but the senior class continues to improve and lead the team toward success.
“In the last three years, there’s been a lot of growth,” coach Allison Garcia-Dowdy said. “This year, we’re being a little bit more competitive than we have in the past. And I think we’ve grown strides in the last couple of months.”
“We’ve never really been able to compete, usually we’ve been filled with losing seasons,” Archuleta said. “This year is the first year that we really were able to put our team together, and really be able to compete.”
Four of Robertson’s goals came in the final six minutes of the match. Outside of those final minutes, senior goalkeeper Kaylee Duran had a strong match to limit what the Cardinals could do.
Their scoring started in the fourth minute, when a bad bounce off of a pass led to an own goal. Robertson led 3-0 after the first half, and 4-0 for most of the second half, until a barrage of goals at the end.
“It’s really great to see that we’re finally coming together as a team,” Archuleta said. “And we’re finally able to connect all the pieces and be able to actually be a decent soccer team that can compete and win games that we weren’t winning before.”
The Elkettes start district play on Tuesday night at Taos (3-7-1) while they seek their first district win under Garcia-Dowdy’s tenure and since 2017, when they played against smaller schools.
“I think that they’re ready for districts,” Garcia-Dowdy said. “They’ve been putting together the pieces that they needed and working together. And we’ve been able to fix a couple of things in practice and make some tweaks. Right now, going into districts, they just need to keep their communication up, and just keep the tenacity that I’ve seen on the team.”
Pojoaque Boys
The Pojoaque boys team (2-7-2) fended off opportunities from the very first minute, while the defense and goalkeeper Omar Hernandez held strong against Robertson (11-2-2), but they ultimately fell in overtime 2-1.
“A lot of these guys, by the end, didn’t have much left in the tank,” said Pojoaque coach Juan Ortiz. “Like coach (Vince) Lombardi says, fatigue will make cowards of us all.”
Pojoaque drew a penalty shot in the seventh minute off of a handball, but Caleb Roybal’s shot and deflection were both saved by Robertson. Hernandez had an especially strong first half, with multiple impressive saves, keeping a scoreless tie into halftime.
In the second half, Robertson’s shot in the fourth minute hit the post, but they punched through a goal a minute later. But Roybal answered with a goal at the 12th minute for a tie. Robertson had several corner kicks, but made nothing of them for the rest of the half.
Pojoaque’s Elijah Hall had a shot in the final minute of regulation, but he hit the post. Hernandez saved a shot on the other end, sending the match into overtime.
Six minutes into overtime, a breakaway from Robertson sent the ball past Hernandez, winning the game with a 2-1 final.
“This is a good game to build on, considering the caliber that Robertson is this year,” Ortiz said. “This builds our confidence going into district, definitely.”