Miyamura records historic win over Aztec
Patriots win, 2-0

GALLUP

The streak is finally over.

The Miyamura girls soccer team scored its first win over Aztec in several years. Miyamura found the back of the net twice in Thursday’s 2-0 win over the Lady Tigers at the Angelo Dipaolo Memorial Stadium in Gallup.

Miyamura improved to 9-5-1 overall and 4-1-1 in District 1-4A play while Aztec dropped to 6-7 and 4-2 in the district.

According to MaxPreps.com, Aztec has beaten the Lady Patriots 10 straight times, which dates back to 2019. In another article on the same website, it lists the streak as 20 games.

“It depends on which article you read on MaxPreps,” Jamison said of the aforementioned losing streak. “I don’t know which one to believe, but it’s been a long time coming. I’m just so proud of these kids. I’m so proud that we pulled it off.”

Junior Lauren Cadman scored the first goal in the opening half on a direct free kick from 30 yards out. In the second half, sophomore striker Alexis Morales earned the Patriots an insurance goal. Morales sent a 20-foot shot toward the goal in the 55th minute as she dribbled through Aztec’s defense. That goal was assisted by sophomore Malaray Romero.

“This was like a big win for us,” Miyamura junior wing Alivia Palacios said. “We were all looking forward to this. We just knew that we wanted to win, so we all worked together.”

Sophomore defender Natalis Sanchez concurred as this year’s Patriots avenged a 1-0 setback to Aztec on Sept. 24 when Lady Tiger Autumn Villanueva hit a header for the game’s only score.

“It means a lot,” Sanchez said. “It really shows the dedication and the hard work we put in. Since last year, we’ve learned, we’ve grown and we’ve progressed.”

Miyamura goalie Iris Day Chief says the 2-0 win on Thursday was historic as Aztec came into this season as the seven-time defending district champs.

“We’ve been hoping for this for quite a while,” Day Chief said. “I mean, Aztec has been very good over the years. We almost had them a few times, but this time we were able to shut them down.”

The Miyamura coach credited the return sophomore forward Adyson Spolar who only played seven minutes the last time the Patriots played Aztec.

“We lost her in the first seven minutes and that hurt us,” Jamison said. “We have a lot of kids that can score, but she’s the one that sets them up. It really hurt having her out last game, but she made a big difference today.”

The Miyamura coach also praised the play of sophomore defender Melaray Romero. “Man, she really pressured their defense,” Jamison said.

Longtime Aztec coach Leroy Nelson says their dominance over Miyamura was bound to end, but he was hoping that they could continue its streak.

“They were the better team tonight,” Nelson said of Miyamura. “They wanted it more and for our part, we didn’t come to play.”

Nelson felt that his club was “ball watching” for most of Thursday’s game as the Patriots controlled most of the possessions.

“We weren’t first to the ball, we weren’t checking the ball and we were off shooting-wise, so we were our worst enemy tonight,” Nelson said. “I mean, we had four opportunities in the first half, but it didn’t work out. In the second half, we had like three opportunities, but it just didn’t happened tonight.”

As for its previous winning streak, Nelson says that sequence dates back to at least a dozen years.

“As long that I’ve been coaching, (the win streak) goes back 12 years,” Nelson said. “Miyamura stepped up tonight and they finally got us.”

On Tuesday, Aztec travels to district leader Bloomfield (10-3-3, 4-0-1) which Nelson says is a “must-win” game if the Tigers want to stay in contention for a state playoff bid, which will field 12 teams.

“Honestly, this game is going to hurt us,” Nelson said. “We have to get by Bloomfield to maybe get the 10th or 11th seed. Right now, we’re sitting 13th and with this defeat, we’re probably going to drop.”

Miyamura, meanwhile, plays Gallup on Tuesday. The Patriots will then travel to Kirtland Central on Oct. 17 before making the trip to Bloomfield on Oct. 22.

“We tied with Bloomfield in our last game and that’s going to be another tough challenge,” Jamison said. “But you can never count out Kirtland. The top four teams in our district are tough.

“These last few games are going to be a dogfight,” the Miyamura coach added. “Every single one of them are going to be tough, so we have to be ready to play each time.”

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