In a home-field rematch with the East Mountain Timberwolves Sept. 23, the Española Valley Sundevils came to play. That was something they hadn’t done when they faced East Mountain Sept. 9 in Sandia Park.
In that first game, Española lost 3-0, but they battled valiantly in the rematch. Española fell behind 2-0 after an East Mountain penalty kick, but closed to within 2-1 and had several scoring opportunities in front of the Timberwolves’ goal.
The Sundevils, however, could not get the equalizer and lost.
“They were a much more lively team than the last time,” East Mountain coach David Lang said.
Española coach Adam Drew saw his team fall to 1-9 on the season, despite the effort.
“It was a better game than we played down (in Sandia Park),” Drew said. “We’re running out of games like this.”
The Sundevils will be in the thick of District 2AAAA play for the remainder of the season, starting with Capital High School Tuesday and Bernalillo Thursday (10/2).
District play means tougher competition. Los Alamos already owns a 10-0 win over the Sundevils. Capital is 6-4 on the season and Taos is 7-3 overall. Bernalillo defeated Española 7-2 Aug. 22 at the Moriarty Invitational tournament, and they beat East Mountain 4-0 Sept. 17.
Class A-AAA East Mountain will likely face a tough road in their district competition too. The Timberwolves are in District 4A-AAA, which includes defending state champion Hope Christian and Sandia Prep, which had won seven straight state titles before Hope ended the streak last year.
In their game against Española, the Timberwolves’ Evan Godin scored off a pass from Richard McCoy to give East Mountain a 1-0 lead just before halftime. East Mountain pressured the Española goal relentlessly in the first 20 minutes of the second half before Contreras scored on a penalty kick. Contreras beat Española goaltender Luis Perez by poking the ball into the left side of the net.
It looked like the Sundevils would be held scoreless, but after a flurry of activity in the East Mountain goal box, the ball came out. From 30 yards away, Española defender Mario Dominguez blasted a shot toward the goal. The hard, low kick curled toward the goal and deflected off the Timberwolves goalie into the left corner of the net.
The unlikely goal seemed to energize the Sundevils, who began pressuring East Mountain. A frenzied struggle in front of the Timberwolves’ goal put their goalie on the ground and Española’s Luis Chavira in front of the net, but he couldn’t get off a shot. The ball was cleared by the Timberwolves’ defense.
The inability to score with several opportunities let the air out of the Sundevil offense, and East Mountain hung on for the victory. They improved to 5-6 on the season.
“We ran out of gas,” Drew said.