Hope Christian caps unbeaten season with fourth consecutive 4A girls soccer title

It would not be unfair to say that the Hope Christian girls soccer team has had its way with District 6-4A rival Albuquerque Academy.

With a 1-0 win in Saturday’s championship game at the UNM Soccer Complex, the Huskies (23-0) have beaten the Chargers (17-5-1) 10 straight matches and 12 of 13 meetings over that time, including three times in the playoffs.

But it wasn’t supposed to be that way this year, said forward Hailey Sanchez, who scored the game’s only goal midway through the first half.

“This year, we have a shocking amount of underclassmen in our starting lineup,” she said. Hope starts seven freshman or eighth-graders.

“So what these girls have done this season was the impossible,” Sanchez continued. “Nobody thought we could do this. Nobody thought we would get this far. Everyone thought this was supposed to be the year that we were bad, the year that we lost everything. So winning this with this age-set of players is just absolutely amazing.”

With the victory, Hope Christian won its fourth straight state title.

The Huskies, which outscored their opponents 133-6 this season, set the stage for this success during the last school year, said midfielder Mason Ricker, who got the assist on the goal.

“This one was super special to me because I had a big role in the leadership part of things,” she said. “And just, the work we’ve put in this year has been very different from the work we put in through other years. So we’ve been putting work in since April. We were doing things since club season, preseason during the summer. It was just super heartwarming knowing that we put all that work in for something.”

The two juniors combined on the goal following a foul, Ricker lofting a ball from shortly inside midfield on which Sanchez reacted first.

“All of us were just watching it and trying to wait to see where it went,” she said. “It went barely over the center back. And I just saw it in there, and I knew that if I had to score, it was gonna have to be a header and I headed it in. I kind of got my feet swept out from underneath, so I ended up on the floor. But the ball went in, and it was just great. It was a great feeling.”

Hope coach Amy Fankam, who knows a thing or two about blue trophies — she hoisted a few in her playing days as Amy Warner at La Cueva — said this one was a bit different.

“I don’t know, relief,” she said in describing her feelings. “I think I was telling the girls that this is one of those years they’ve done everything I’ve asked and more. They did extra fitness all the time, stuff that you wouldn’t expect a bunch of teenage girls to be willing to do with a smile on their face. So you get to the point where, if they don’t win it this year, you can’t ask any more of them. So I would just say yes, joy, but a lot of relief, really.”

Photos from the 4A/5A state soccer championships: Feel the emotion