‘Tired’ Bloomfield girls outlast Gallup, 3-1

GALLUP

The Bloomfield Lady Bobcats can finish no worse than third in the District 1-4A girls soccer race.

On Thursday night, the Bobcats defeated upset-minded Gallup, 3-1, at the Angelo Dipaolo Memorial Stadium.

“They played powderpuff (football) last night, and they got really beat up, so they were really tired for this game,” Lady Bobcat coach Kim Williams said of her squad as they had a 32 to 12 advantage on shots on goal.

“That’s why they kind of played flat,” she said. “I’m just glad that won, but you saw all the shots; they just need to come together as a team and play better as a team.”

Thursday night’s final score starkly contrasted with Bloomfield’s 10-0 shutout win over the Lady Bengals on Oct. 3.

Gallup coach Juan Vega said he missed some key starters in that early October game.

“At that time, we had a lot of injuries to our varsity players,” Vega said. “We had our JV team suit up, but (Bloomfield) was too good for our JV.”

Vega said goalie Morgan Belone was one of those players that didn’t play in that first game. On Thursday night, she turned in a spectacular performance with 19 saves.

“It’s good to have her back for this game,” he said. “When you don’t have a goalie, it’s hard to stop the ball.”

Bloomfield got on board first, with senior midfielder Miranda Jaquez scoring in the game’s third minute.

In the 38th minute, Gallup tied the contest at 1-1 with a goal from senior Breanna Becenti, who attempted a team-best six shots.

However, Bloomfield struck back with sophomore Evani Velasquez breaking free from her defender as she went one-on-one with Gallup’s goalie, earning the Bobcats a 2-1 halftime lead.

“We got that score, and then we went back in there really loose,” Vega said. “That’s happened like six times this season. It took us (38) minutes to score one, and we let them score in like 30 seconds.”

Late in the second half, Bloomfield senior Juleima Jaquez tallied the Bobcats final score.

The regular season will wrap up next week so the Bobcats can finish as the district runner-up.

As of Friday, the district standings have defending league champion Aztec at the top with a 7-1 record, followed by Bloomfield at 6-2 and Kirtland Central at 5-1-2.

At 2-5-1, Miyamura heads the next three, followed by Gallup 1-5-1 and Shiprock 0-7.

Aztec and KC meet on Tuesday, and that game could affect the final league standings.

Bloomfield, meanwhile, will finish the season at Miyamura on Tuesday before hosting Kirtland Central on Thursday.

“If we win those games, that will push us to second,” Williams said.

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