Clovis girls rally to tie Carlsbad

CLOVIS — On a cold, windy Thursday night, it didn’t look good early on for the Clovis High girls soccer team.

Down by two goals early on, though, the Lady Wildcats hung tough, finally pulling even late in the second half en route to a 2-2 Class 5A District 4 tie with Carlsbad in double overtime at Leon Williams Stadium.

Junior forward-midfielder Danielle Griego got deep inside the 18-yard box to get the Lady Cats (9-4-3, 1-0-2 district) on the board late in the half. Then junior Madison Lynch converted a direct kick from 32 yards out midway through the second stanza, sliding the ball just over the outstretched hand of Cavegirls goalkeeper Patti Oliver and just under the crossbar.

“I think that was probably the best total game we’ve played this year,” CHS coach Traci Sievers said. “There were some ups and downs, but probably more ups than downs.”

The result leaves the teams in a three-way tie for the district lead with Hobbs, which blanked Roswell High 1-0 on Thursday at home. Clovis turns around to play at Carlsbad on Tuesday and at Hobbs next Saturday before hosting Roswell High in its regular-season finale.

Things were definitely looking bleak for the Lady Cats until Griego’s goal with about six minutes left in the half.

“We just had to control what we could control,” said CHS junior goalkeeper Hanna Nussbaumer, who had seven saves — all in the second half and overtime. “We realized we were in a fight, but we picked it up after that.”

The Cavegirls (12-2-3, 1-0-2) struck for both of their goals in the first 11 minutes, the first coming when junior Morgan Bradley tapped in senior Emma Haston’s corner kick from the right side and the second when sophomore Alexa Dugan fired into an open net from about 10 yards out after Nussbaumer came out to challenge her.

“It was tough conditions,” Cavegirls coach Misty Long said. “We’ve had two tough road games in a row, but when you have a team down you have to have more of a killer instinct.”

Lynch’s goal seemed to give the Lady Cats a noticeable boost, but they were unable to find the back of the next the rest of the way.

Nussbaumer said it was big to be able to come back and salvage a tie, a result which keeps the Lady Cats unbeaten at home this season (3-0-2).

“We needed it, especially against a really good team,” she said. “We needed it to try to get a good seed (for the upcoming state playoffs).”

Clovis’ work is still cut out with the two upcoming road matches, but Sievers is confident.

“It seems like we’re getting all the pieces to the puzzle put together right now,” she said. “It’s a matter of keeping that intensity.”

Tuesday at Roswell — The Widlcats notched a goal in each half to grab their first District 4-5A win of the season.

Junior Madison Lynch and sophomore Illeana Griego supplied the goals. Junior Hanna Nussbaumer and Lynch provided the assists.

Nussbaumer posted the shutout, recording four saves in the process.

Thursday, Clovis returned home and rallied to tie Carlsbad 2-2.

Trailing 2-1 at halftime, the Lady Wildcats scored the only goal of the second half. And neither team was able to score in the two overtimes.

Still battling

The Portales girls lost at home, 8-0, against Goddard on Thursday.

The Lady Rams will head into Tuesday’s home game against Artesia searching for their first District 4-4A victory of the season. It will the Portales’ regular-season home finale.

Portales’ boys lost a tough one Tuesday, falling 1-0 at Artesia.

The Rams hosted Goddard late Saturday afternoon.