Lady Eagles beat Mayfield in OT
JASON FARMER/NEWS-SUN
The Hobbs girls’ soccer team hosted Mayfield in a physical game at Watson Memorial Stadium Tuesday night. Despite playing the entire second half a man up on Mayfield, the game went to overtime, but Hobbs still got the win, beating Mayfield 3-2.
“We kind of knew (it was going to be physical) coming in,” Hobbs coach Makenzie Telles said. “(Mayfield) is kind of a scrappy team, they give it all they got. My main thing was just not having my girls react.”
The Lady Eagles’ soccer coach got the results and reactions what she wanted from her team.
Hobbs and Mayfield combined for six yellow cards in the first half. The Lady Eagles picked up one, while the Lady Trojans were awarded five, two of which went to Mayfield’s Amber Bradley and another that went to the Lady Trojans’ coach, Santiago Meza, after Bradley was ejected following a second yellow card.
“It is always a good day when we get some calls that are needed,” the Lady Eagles’ coach said. “He (the referee) has to stop that early on because if not, it becomes a bloodbath out there. I am glad he took control of what was happening in the first half to calm the game down.”
“Our coach told us (Mayfield) would come out hard,” Hobbs senior Hannah Davila said. “We normally have a hard time not reacting. Tonight we didn’t and they did. That is what got a lot of the yellows.”
While there were no cards issued in the second half, one of Mayfield’s assistants was ejected with 16:17 to play after arguing with the head referee.
The Lady Eagles didn’t need much time to get the game winner. Davila scored the game winner 48 seconds into OT off a cross from Clarissa Mares.
“We have been working on these plays,” Davila said. “My midfielder knew right when to send it.”
“We needed that,” Telles added. “We probably could have done that all game, but I am glad when it means something, they can come out and get it done.”
Mayfield scored the game’s first goal, earning a penalty shot off a handball in the box just under three minutes into the game. The Lady Eagles knotted the game with 25:50 left in the opening when Davila put a corner kick from Sophia Villalobos into the back of the net.
“We have been working on that all season, crashing the goal, crashing the goal,” Telles said of scoring on the corner kick. “Today one finally fell in, in our favor.”
Hobbs and Mayfield went into the break knotted at 1-all.
The Lady Eagles took a 2-1 lead with 26:58 to play when Brianna Baker scored on an assist from Brook Davis.
Unfortunately, the Lady Eagles were unable to hold the lead.
Lilly Cortez was in the goal for Hobbs and had a huge save with 4:17 to play, enabling the Lady Eagles to keep the lead. However, the Lady Trojans were able to tie it up with 2:46 to play on their second penalty kick of the game. This time Hobbs was called for a shove inside.
“We were getting a little lackadaisical in the middle and I told them that,” Telles said. “That kind of put our defense in a bind.”
With the win, Hobbs improves to 6-4-2 on the season while Mayfield falls to 7-2. Next up for the Lady Eagles is a game at Sandia on Saturday at 1 p.m.
In junior varsity action, the JV Lady Eagles picked up a win over Mayfield, beating the JV Lady Trojans 2-1. The Hobbs JV team never trailed.
Kareli Rivera gave Hobbs the early lead with an unassisted goal four minutes the game. Eight minutes later, Sophia Soto got Hobbs’ second goal off an assist from Rivera.
Mayfield’s JV squad got its goal with seven minutes left in the opening half.
The JV Lady Eagles have now won four straight and improve to 7-1 on the season. Next up for the JV Lady Eagles is a road trip to Albuquerque for a game against Sandia’s JV squad. Play begins at 1 p.m.
