Cross-town rivals: Miyamura boys, Gallup girls score doubleheader wins

By Santiago Ramos Jr.
Special to the Times

GALLUP – Miyamura and Gallup split their boys and girls district soccer doubleheader Thursday evening at the Angelo DiPaolo Memorial Stadium in Gallup.

The Miyamura Patriots, who were missing four starters, posted a 10-0 mercy rule win over the also short-handed Gallup Bengals in the late soccer match to stay perfect in district at 2-0.

In the opening match, the Gallup Lady Bengals grabbed a 4-1 district win over the Miyamura Lady Patriots.

Boys

Miyamura 10, Gallup 0

Miyamura played without four starters while Gallup was even more shorthanded with just 11 players dressed out with two players out with family emergencies with no subs.

Miyamura head coach Wesley Jones said his team was also shorthanded.

“We had a few players hurt tonight,” Jones said. “We had four starters that didn’t dress out that normally start. We pulled a whole bunch of guys from JV. We were resting those injured players today, but they should be back.”

The Patriots, the defending District 1-4A champs, got all the goals they needed when senior striker Sean Polar punched in his team’s first of 10 goals at 12:00 in the first half.

Miyamura got its second goal when Gallup senior Kasey Benally tried to flick the ball out of the net but inadvertently scored one for the Patriots five minutes later. Patriot senior Jaxson Jones was given credit for the goal.

At the 22:00 mark of the first half junior Brody Tah found the back of the net that made it 3-0.

The Patriots punched in three more goals before intermission with sophomore Cayden Allen scoring back-to-back goals before eighth grader Geovanni Sanchez knocked in a winner with six minutes left in the first half.

Two minutes into the second half, senior Jameson Ferguson scored a goal followed by Jones with his second goal of the match and a goal by junior Osvaldo Gadrea at the 57:00 mark.

After a pair of goals by the Patriots that were nullified due to being off sides, Miyamura senior Roman Bejarano rammed in the 10th and final goal of the night to end the contest with a 10-0 district mercy rule over its rivals.

Coach Jones said that his team is gradually improving with each match.

“We had a good pre-district,” he said. “We got a little bit of work to do. We got some good teams that we will be playing later on in district.”

Gallup head coach Hilario Trejo, whose Bengals drop to 0-9 overall, 0-2 in district, said he could not sub during the district match, having the full lineup of 11 players with just a minimum required nine players.

“Right now our full roster is at 13 (players),” Trejo said. “And that’s all we have. We had two that had family emergencies so they couldn’t make it tonight. So, I’m just trying to keep their heads up since we had no subs. Other teams are bringing in fresh players. I got no fresh legs. We’re doing the best they can. We go toe-to-toe with a lot of our district teams with no subs at all. It’s hard.”

Gallup senior goalkeeper Anthony Thomas was hurt in the first half with a rib injury before leaving in the second half for freshman backup goalie Dominic Johnson who played the second half. Thomas sat out the second half leaving the Bengals with just 10 players on the field.

Miyamura, 10-3-1, 2-0, played at Kirtland Central (4-8, 1-0) earlier this week.

Gallup (0-10, 0-2) played Bloomfield (5-7, 1-0) at home earlier this week.

Girls

Gallup 4, Miyamura 1

In the opening match, Gallup and Miyamura had a close first half.

The Lady Patriots struck first with sophomore Gabriela Sanchez scoring eight minutes into the match,

The Lady Bengals, 4-8 overall, even in district at 1-1, responded midway in the first half as junior Mya Hosteen found the back of the net for a 1-1 tie at intermission.

Gallup gradually pulled away in the second half with three goals.

Senior striker Brenna Becenti, who is the team’s leading scorer, scored on a high arching shot that found its mark at the 65:00 mark. Six minutes later Hosteen scored her second goal of the match.

With about a minute left senior striker Jazmine Marrufo knocked in the final goal past Miyamura freshman goalkeeper Iris Day Chief for a 4-1 win.

Coming off a district loss with Kirtland Central earlier in the week, Gallup head coach Juan Vega said his team had confidence that they could compete with Miyamura.

“They knew that they had enough energy to come and play against Miyamura and look for a win,” Vega said.

Being down 1-0 early in the match, Vega said his girls stayed focused.

“They stayed together, they didn’t lose it and they scored four goals and that’s good.”

Miyamura head coach Xavier Chavez, whose team drops to 6-5-1 overall, 0-2 in district, played Kirtland Central on Tuesday.

“You can score first but you have to finish the game,” Chavez said. “That’s unfortunate we weren’t able to at least finish the game today. I’m proud of my girls for at least scoring in the first minutes. We just need to finish. “Defensively Gallup knew what it was doing. Us as a team, we played into their defense. Our offense was more susceptible to their defense rather than us playing our strategy.”

Gallup (4-8, 1-1) played at Bloomfield (7-3, 2-0) earlier this week.

Miyamura (6-5-1, 0-2) hosted Kirtland Central (8-4, 2-0) earlier this week.

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