Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Staff photo: Tony Bullocks Clovis sophomore Markus Ward goes high to head the ball to a teammate during the first half of Thursday’s boys soccer match against Portales at the Yucca complex. Clovis cruised to a 10-0 victory.
Sports writer
The fast start to the 2015 season continued on Thursday for the Clovis High boys soccer team.
link Staff photo: Tony Bullocks
Clovis sophomore Markus Ward goes high to head the ball to a teammate during the first half of Thursday’s boys soccer match against Portales at the Yucca complex. Clovis cruised to a 10-0 victory.
Meantime, a young Portales squad is going through some early tribulations.
Senior forward Alejandro Medina scored two goals and added a pair of assists as the Wildcats improved to 7-1 with a 10-0 victory over the Rams at the Yucca complex. The game ended with less than four minutes left on the 10-goal mercy rule.
CHS coach Greg Trujillo acknowledged that the Rams (0-4), with all their losses to larger schools, are going through some growing pains.
“Next year, they’ll be a lot better,” he said. “Last year against us, they were relentless the whole time. But I think this year, we’re a tighter-knit group and we’re playing more as a team.”
Eight players scored for Clovis, including a pair of goals for senior Jose Duran. Junior midfielder Ben Donaldson punched in a point-blank shot in a scramble in front of the net to end it early.
“I felt like we played better than the first time,” Rams coach Nathan Dodge said, referring to a 5-0 loss to Clovis on Aug. 25 at PHS. “Everything just kind of went their way.
“We’re just young; we’ve got to keep getting after it. Hopefully, we’re not making these mistakes in late October.”
Goals by Jose Duran and Ismael Marrufo late in the half made it 4-0 at the intermission. The Cats were able to stay on the attack most of the way and subbed freely in the second half.
“We kind of got winded,” said Dodge, whose team hosts Lovington on Tuesday in its next outing. “They subbed a lot of guys in and out.”
Trujillo said the Cats should get a stiff test on Tuesday against Roswell High at Leon Williams Stadium.
“We’ve got a test coming up with Roswell,” he said. “They play a similar style to what we do. If we come out with a win there, we’ll be in good shape.”
