Hope Christian girls, La Cueva boys win metro crowns

Best team in the metro tournament. Possibly New Mexico’s best team.

Period.

The Hope Christian girls soccer team won the Albuquerque Metro Soccer Championships on Friday night at the APS Complex, scoring all their goals in the second half for a 4-0 victory over Volcano Vista as the Huskies extended their two-year winning streak to 43 matches.

The La Cueva boys scored three minutes into the second overtime, and the Bears also won metros, 1-0 over Rio Grande in a game that was delayed close to an hour due to a severely injured Ravens player.

Freshman Mechi Garbarino scored Hope’s first two goals, in the 46th and 70th minutes, as the Huskies (6-0) finally pulled away from the Hawks (4-1).

“She’s by far one of the best players in the state of New Mexico,” Hope coach Amy Fankam said. “She’s just magical on the ball.”

Hope scored nine second-half goals between Wednesday’s semifinal victory over Albuquerque Academy (five) and then four more Friday night on a cool, occasionally drizzly night on the West Side.

The Huskies were not entirely secure until goals by Louisa Landavazo in the 75th minute and Bryson Fankam in the 78th.

Goalkeeper Maddy James registered five saves for Hope Christian, which will face Volcano Vista again on the West Side, across the street on the Hawks’ field, later this month.

Garbarino said there were no major changes Friday night from one half to another. Just more efficient soccer.

“I just think we had a lot of chances, and we just wanted to keep pushing, keep the pressure up, and we knew if we kept the intensity, we would get one,” she said.

It was the same lineup and formation from one half to the next, coach Fankam said.

“We finally settled down,” she said. “We were terrible in the first couple of minutes tonight … we just kind of wore them down a little bit.”

BOYS: La Cueva (4-0-1) was a man down on the adjacent field at the end of the game against Rio Grande (4-1-2) before the game-winning goal in the second OT.

The Bears played all of the overtime with 10 men due to a second yellow card on a player.

It was freshman forward Brice Clark who punched home the game-winner, and tournament clincher, for La Cueva. He, a Rio Grande defender and the Ravens goalkeeper all ran into each other on the deciding play; the ball popped out, and Clark had the presence to slot home a shot from about nine yards out.

La Cueva has won metros three straight years, and the Bears are believed to be the first boys team to do this.

“I’m very proud of them,” La Cueva coach Easy Jimenez said. “They kept their composure the whole entire game.”

A Bears player and a Ravens player collided heads early in the second half, leading to a lengthy delay. It took at least 30 minutes before paramedics and an ambulance arrived, and eventually the Rio Grande player was loaded and driven to a local hospital.

The delay lasted roughly 45 minutes total. La Cueva’s player did not return to the game but he was not considered to be injured badly, Jimenez said.

There was no immediate word on the extent of the injuries to Rio Grande’s player.

Moments from Albuquerque Metro Soccer Championship games