Currently skating by with a skeleton roster after starting the spring with one well populated. Ignacio Soccer struggled most recently against 3A/2A Southwestern League strongholds Alamosa and Bayfield, and likely won’t be done any favors in its upcoming April 18 home match against fringe hopefuls Ridgway.
Hosting then No. 10 (No. 7 in the more recent 4/13 CHSAANow.com Class 3A poll) Alamosa at IHS Field on April 7, the league-leading Mean Moose stampeded out to a 3-0 lead just ten minutes in, led 8-nil through the 26th and finished off an inevitable 10-0 mercy-rule shutout in the 52nd.
Three minutes earlier, however, no-quit Lady Bobcat junior Tristan Boone had nearly dirtied the clean sheet with a well-aimed shot towards the rear upper-90 over backpedaling goalie Breanna Broyles’ right shoulder.
AHS (8-0, 8-0 SWL as of Monday, April 13) got three-goal hat tricks from senior Tayleur Hillis (3rd minute, 14th, 20th), freshman Gabriella Imre (7th, 10th, 26th) and junior Darby Bolt (18th, 21st, 52nd), and a solitary strike from senior playmaker Taylor Nye in the 46th.
Senior goalkeeper Krissy Velasquez, who’d faced the entire 44-shot onslaught and finished with an unofficial 21 total [shot- and necessity-based] saves, finally got a break from skipper Oscar Cosio and was given a field player’s jersey at intermission on April 10 inside Wolverine Country Stadium.
At that point, BHS (4-2, 4-2) had gotten goals in the 12th minute from freshman Lydia Larson, in the 23rd from junior Maddy Duran, in the 30th from senior Emily Popke, and in the 31st from classmate Meaghan Mooney, while Velasquez had collected eleven total stops amidst 23 Lady Wolverine shots (only 13 were on frame).
Between the pipes for the second half went Maya Rock – BHS boss Jennifer Zelinski had already pulled starter Savannah Kaufmann in the 31st for reserve Caitlynn Phillips – and the freshman, after being greeted by Duran in the 42nd, Larson in the 44th and Kaufmann in the 45th, settled in to make ten combined saves.
Juniors Kaylee Gomez (65th minute) and Alyssa Knapp (79th) also netted for BHS before full time.
Out-cornered 19-0 in the two tilts, and held without a shot in Bayfield, Ignacio dipped to 0-6, 0-6.
After hosting RHS, the Lady Bobcats’ next fixture was set for Thursday, April 23 at circuit rivals Center, with a date at Alamosa to follow the next afternoon and each to kick off at 4 p.m.