1A-3A girls championship: St. Michael's overcomes tough start to rise to the top

When the St. Michael’s girls soccer team started the season with three consecutive losses, it might have been hard to envision the third-seeded Horsemen celebrating a Class 1A-3A state championship Friday on the final day of the season.

But celebrate they did after a 1-0 win over No. 5 Bosque at the University of New Mexico Soccer and Track Complex. It was the Horsemen’s fifth overall title and first since the COVID mini-season in the spring of 2021.

“We had a losing streak to start the season,” St. Mike’s forward Sophia Miera said. “And it made us stronger and made us work harder for the win in every single game we played.”

The Horsemen (18-5) grabbed the lead in the 31st minute after a foul at midfield. Iliana Sandoval’s free kick floated into Miera on a bounce. She settled it off her chest about 12 yards out, made a quick turn and finished inside the near post.

“We have an amazing center back, Iliana. Her foot is just amazing,” said Miera, who notched her 61st goal of the season. “Every time she takes a free kick, we know it’s going to be put in a crucial spot in the box. And I knew once I saw that ball coming to me that I could do whatever I could to get it into the back of the net.”

Which is exactly what she did.

“Once it hit my chest and there was no one in front of me, I knew that I had to hit it as hard as I could toward the goal and just hope it went in,” Miera said.

Bosque (14-7-1) beat St. Mike’s 2-1 in September, but the Bobcats suffered some bad luck Thursday that had consequences in the game.

Forward Rose Candelaria, who entered the game with 25 goals and nine assists, pulled a muscle in her upper right thigh while taking a practice shot, coach Johnny Moya said.

“It was our last practice. No contact, just doing some shooting drills to get ready for (Friday) and she took a shot and pulled a muscle,” he said. “And it changed the outcome of the game because you have to have players from other positions to fill other positions and you’re just not the same team you were all year.”

Candelaria, a tall, fast, physical player, tried to gut it out but it was obvious she was hurting.

“You could see she just did not have it,” Moya said. “What a way to go our. She’s our second leading score in Bosque history and to go out like that in her game…she wanted it, but the body just wasn’t up for it.”

Still, he said, St. Mike’s performed well and deserved the victory.

“St. Mike’s played hard, they worked hard so I’m proud of them, too,” Moya said. “We have eight seniors on this team and I told them that’s how you build program is having girls stick around the whole time. We were six minutes away from beating Sandia Prep (three) years ago. We thought this was going to be our time, but we were met with an equally tough St. Mike’s team.”

And St. Mike’s however, had put the lessons learned in their previous meeting to good use.

“We played Bosque in the middle of the season and it was a very tight game, but we had our opportunities,” said Horsemen coach Alfonso Camarena. We studied the team. We knew what the weaknesses and the strong points and we tried to neutralize their strengths.”

Moments from the 2025 girls state soccer finals