Cats cautiously optimistic for soccer season

CLOVIS — With a new district alignment comes a new optimism for the Clovis boys soccer team. But there’s also an understandable amount of urgency.

The Wildcats, who didn’t get much in the way of official workouts heading into today’s season opener at Lovington, enter the season figuring they’re going to have to end the season as the District 4-5A champion to know they’re making the state tournament field.

“I think you almost have to win (district) to get in,” Clovis coach Greg Trujillo said. “If we were to finish second, we’d have to be somewhere around 15-5 to get in.”

Clovis is coming off a 10-10 campaign with a 4-6 record in the Albuquerque-heavy District 2-6A. Now, they battle Roswell, Hobbs and Carlsbad for district supremacy.

Despite the fast start to the season, the Wildcats are optimistic they’ve got the big questions answered:

n Does Clovis replace Markus Baughman with one scorer, or do it via committee? Losing Baughman to graduation, and his team-high 15 goals, isn’t easy. The safe bet is that either Elias Ortega (seven goals, nine assists in 2017) or Kade Jones (six goals, seven assists) move into that top scorer role, but there could be a wager on senior Richard Masterson as well.

“It’s going to be everybody working to get scoring opportunities,” Trujillo said. “Kade Jones is back for his senior year. Richard Masterson is back. He was out last year with an ACL injury he suffered in basketball, and he scored 16 goals (on junior varsity) the year before. Elias Ortega, we’re counting on him to do some good things.”

Masterson hated having to sit on the sidelines last year knowing the complement he could have provided to Baughman, Ortega and Jones, and he hopes senior year is good enough to erase that memory.

“I missed it so bad,” Masterson said. “There’s pain, and then there’s that pain. This year, I’ve got high hopes.”

Jones is optimistic the team will figure it out.

“Everybody respects each other and trusts each other,” Jones said. “Everybody works really hard. Everybody has focus.”

n Will a new defense step up? Trujillo hopes so. That’s the biggest question mark, with most of last year’s defensive corps graduated.

“The biggest thing is we had to replace the whole defensive line, pretty much,” Trujillo said. “Our guys starting on there played midfield and forward last year.”

As far as the last line of defense goes, the Wildcats plan to start Bruno Armendariz most games following a junior season where he filled in for an injured Spencer Rollins and posted a 6-5 record with a 2.65 goals-against average. But Trujillo said it’s likely Carlos Valdivia will see plenty of minutes as well.

The Wildcats are going to have to bond, as the early stretch of the season is comprised of the lion’s share of the total season travel. After Lovington, Clovis heads to Albuquerque the following weekend to face Sandia Prep and Hope Christian, and the next weekend is the Louie Cernicek Tournament in Los Alamos. The Wildcats aren’t home until Sept. 4 against Lovington. District play starts at home Oct. 2 against Carlsbad and ends Oct. 23 at home against Roswell.

Senior Devin Fowler said they heard throughout the summer that it was Hobbs’ district to lose, but there’s no lack of confidence on the Wildcat sidelines despite a pair of overtime losses this summer to the Eagles.

“The team didn’t mesh as well last year as we do this year,” Fowler said. “Not only do we have great players, but we’ve got great chemistry.”