Rams top Alacranes, 2-1

PORTALES — Despite being unfamiliar with Santa Fe's Tierra Encantada Charter Academy in Tuesday's boys soccer matchup, the host Portales High had a solid showing, as Andrew Villegas' second-half goal lifted the Rams past the Alacranes 2-1.

With the game tied 1-1 in the 45th minute, Villegas broke into the open field and made two defenders miss, then did the same with the goaltender before tapping it into the net.

"He did good, I know he has great speed and touch," Rams coach Nathan Dodge said of Villegas. "So as soon as he got it, kind of in the open field, he had to make a couple moves and went straight to goal. He does that in practice a lot and when I saw it I said, 'Take it."

In the early going, Portales (7-6) had several missed opportunities, as a pair of headers were saved.

Tierra Encantada (4-5), meanwhile, could not convert on a Mario Juarez penalty kick.

Juarez, however, redeemed himself soon after, as his free kick near the Alacranes bench went right over the heads of multiple Rams defenders, and just out of the reach of Portales goalie Brian Tinajero.

The lead, however, would be short-lived for Tierra Encantada, as Portales converted on an opportunity in the 29th minute. A Rams free kick was fielded by Jose Morales, whose short pass to Josiah Tellez resulted in a game-tying goal.

The Alacranes would go on to miss several chances in the second half, especially down the stretch. In particular, Tinajero had another strong showing, as his seven saves included some impressive diving stops.

"I felt like, especially in that second half towards the very end, we had a lot of good crosses in, but didn't hit them home. Those two missed marks on defense on those goals cost us," Alacranes coach Kurtis Montoya said.

"Our season has a lot of up and downs. A lot of times we have nailbiters towards the end, and we just (can't finish). They're still getting used to each other and we're still getting new to this concept of everything."

While Montoya has to build a young program that doesn't even have their own regular practice field, Dodge and company are looking to build on their momentum from their past two wins, as they'll have two tough district home games this weekend against Hope Christian and Moriarty.

Earlier in the year, Dodge said that his team struggled to finish games in the second-half, but each of the past two games have proven to show otherwise. "Just competing and playing hard - just playing until the last whistle," Dodge said.

"Our boys are doing a good job. (I've) kind of moved all kinds of people around. You see we got people playing all over the place, but that's good, it takes everybody."