Portales soccer keeps on rolling against Moriarty

STAFF WRITER

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The Portales Rams boys soccer team is still undefeated and got back to its winning ways Tuesday afternoon posting a 6-1 victory over District 4-4A foe Moriarty at Portales High.

With head coach Nathan Dodge serving his one-game suspension after receiving a red card against Hope Christian on Saturday, it was up to assistant coach Alex Lopez to make sure the Rams wouldn’t lose their first game on the pitch this season, and he did just that.

Staff photo: Matthew Asher

Portales’ Pedro Perea dribbles past a Moriarty defender in the second half of Tuesday’s match. Perea would score his third goal of the game about a minute later, giving Portales a 6-1 victory.

Moriarty (3-10, 1-1) got on the board first in the sixth minute of the game thanks to a corner kick rebound that bounced off Portales’ goalie and then was put back in by Lucas Shirley.

“I told them to keep their heads together and keep composed because I know we’re a team that can play from behind,” Lopez said following the goal.

The lead would last about 10 minutes as Portales’ (10-0-1, 1-0-1) Junior Salomon netted the equalizer in the 16th minute coming off an assist by Omar Nunez. The Rams would take the lead for good in the 39th minute when Pedro Perea got an assist from Jesus Cavez to score his first of three goals in the match.

“We brushed ourselves off after that,” Lopez said. “There was a lot of miscommunication in the first half but we took care of business in the second half. I think we did well continuing that we have three players (Julian Tellez, Lesther Oliva Andrade and Rene Alanis) sitting out right now. We had to bring up some JV players and they helped us out where we needed.”

With a 2-1 lead after the half, Portales continued to make the Moriarty defense uncomfortable as the Rams had an 11-2 advantage in shots over the Fighting Pintos and had an 8-5 lead in corner kick opportunities. Freddy Exiga and Perea would score alternating goals to give the Rams their final four points of the match. Lopez was happy with the team’s overall effort, especially Perea and his three goals.

“He did great,” Lopez said of Perea. “Pedro needs to work on his communication skills. Overall, he’s a very good player who works well with the boys on the team. He was able to come away with the hat-trick today.”

The Lady Rams had a chance to get back to .500 in conference play, but were blanked 7-0 by the Lady Pintos for Portales’ sixth-straight loss.

“We just came out flat,” coach Ruben Tellez said. “I don’t know what else there is to say. It was a lack of communication. We’ve stressed that in practice you have to open your mouth (on the pitch) and it’s costing us on the field. We had a chance to go 1-1 in conference. I feel we should have won this game and get right back in the swing of things, but (our team) didn’t see it that way.”

Moriarty (8-6-1, 2-0) took a 4-0 lead into the half and it continued to grow.

In addition to Tellez talking about the lack of communication, Portales (5-9, 0-2) gave up a few goals due to several players simply hesitating when the ball came near them, allowing for some easy shots.

“I changed goalies in the second half,” Tellez said. “These were rinky-dink shots. I told my girls that hesitation causes goals. I don’t want to take anything away from Moriarty thought. They came, they were mentally prepared. We weren’t and they beat us.”

The Rams stay at home Thursday afternoon and will host Goddard while the Lady Rams will travel to Roswell to face the Lady Rockets.