Lady Horsemen eliminated in state soccer semifinals
Nov. 2—ALBUQUERQUE — The waning seconds of Tuesday afternoon's Class 1A-3A state soccer semifinals gave Lee Hunt a moment to stand back, fold his arms across his chest and gaze across Sandia Prep's grass soccer pitch toward his daughter.
Logan Hunt, one of four seniors on the St. Michael's roster, was putting the finishing touches on her high school soccer career. The realization it was all coming to an end was setting in fast, and her dad knew it.
She and the Lady Horsemen (14-6) had just been eliminated in a 2-1 loss to Sandia Prep, ending a tumultuous season that was, to say the least, interesting from start to finish. The runners-up in last year's state tournament, they survived the sudden resignation of their head coach in the final 10 days of the regular season to reach the final four of the state tournament.
Logan Hunt was making her way back toward the sidelines when her dad stopped her for a hug that seemed to last forever.
"I just told her I was lucky enough to coach her first game and lucky enough to coach her last," Lee Hunt said. "It was the biggest pleasure I could ever have."
A goalkeeper during his playing days at Western Kentucky, Hunt volunteered to come out of the stands to serve as the Lady Horsemen's assistant coach after Alfonso Camarena stepped down Oct. 19. The team bounced back from a pair of forced forfeits for using an ineligible player, winning in the first round of the postseason last weekend.
"We've been through so much the last couple weeks, it's been through the ringer," said senior Grace Sandoval, the team's top offensive threat and one of the most consistent players in the program's history. "In a sense, it feels like we got robbed. I wish we were playing [Sandia Prep] in the championship instead of here. It would have given us one more game together, a chance to be out here one last time."
The tournament's top seed, Sandia Prep (18-3-1) got the start it needed when a tripping foul on St. Michael's was called in the first minute of the game. It happened in the box, giving the Sundevils a penalty kick before a number of fans had even settled in.
Kiran Hill capitalized, driving a shot into the right side of the net just inside the pole to give Sandia Prep a 1-0 lead. It remained that way for the next 59 minutes as both teams settled in.
"Not a great way to start because you're spotting them the lead a minute in and end up chasing them the entire game," Lee Hunt said.
Prep's Penny Hashagen appeared to deliver the knockout blow with 20 minutes left when she took a long pass across the midfield stripe and raced in a step ahead of the Lady Horsemen defense. She beat St. Michael's goalkeeper Jacquelin Gorman to make it 2-0.
Gorman did everything she could to keep the Lady Horsemen in it. That included taking the full force of a point-blank shot from Sundevils co-captain Maddie Hashagen earlier in the second half.
The ball hit Gorman's hands, then her face. She briefly left the game to tend to a bloody nose, returning just seconds later to finish things out.
"No way I'm coming out, because this is my team and I'm going to play with them until the very end," Gorman said. "It was just a stinger that hit the bridge of my nose. It was just a bloody nose, no big deal."
Tara Schneider's header got the Lady Horsemen on the scoreboard with 11 minutes left. It was one of a handful of quality looks at the goal, but that one play seemed to inject life into the St. Michael's offense. In the end it just wasn't enough, which takes it all back to the postgame embrace between father and daughter.
Lee Hunt said that early goal altered the team's strategy just a bit, that all the buttons the team pushed in the ensuing 79 minutes never fully panned out.
Having coached a number of the girls on the St. Michael's roster when they were still in grade school, Hunt said he felt the sting on behalf of all the kids under his charge. Both he and Alexa Chavez coached the team when it all seemed ready to fall apart after Camarena's exit.
"After Alexa took over I visited with her and she was happy to have someone help that knew soccer, that played soccer," he said. "In that was it was easy to step in because I've known a lot of these girls since they were about 8 years old."
The last two weeks of the season breezed by in no time at all, particularly the final moments when the final whistle blew and a number of players crumbled to Sandia Prep's grass. The reality of it all was finally settling in.
"We could have quit; we could have done that easily," Gorman said. "We all came together and decided to finish this thing. It didn't end the way we wanted but we did it together."
NOTES
Tuesday's game was played in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd, one that took up most of the available seats on the north side of the pitch. It was followed by Sandia Prep's 3-1 win over Robertson in the 1A-3A boys semifinals. ... That win by the Prep boys was the 400th in the career of Sundevils coach Tommy Smith, one of the most successful and decorated coaches in state history.
