Ladies do the impossible, pull off miracle

By Victor Kraft
Sports Editor
Rio Rancho High Rams Prints

Here it is a week after the Rio Rancho High School girl’s soccer team pulled of a miraculous three-goal comeback to win their first state championship. And I still don’t believe it.

In what was the best game in any sport that I have witnessed in my young career - and arguably one of the greatest high school soccer games ever played in New Mexico - the Lady Rams rallied from a 3-0 deficit to win in a shootout after four exhausting overtime periods.

It was tense. It was dramatic. It was emotional. It was everything you would want in a sporting event and more.

Battered, bruised and bandaged, the Lady Rams scored three goals in the final 14 minutes of regulation just to force overtime, and then won on penalty kicks. The final score will go in the record books as Rio Rancho 4, Sandia 3, but that doesn’t even come close to telling the story.

I witnessed the boy’s basketball team win the state title in The Pit last March, but that game didn’t come close to the intensity of this soccer game. It was apparent that many of the Lady Rams were injured and/or just plain exhausted, but their courage was the stuff of legend.  

Sandia dominated play in the first half, taking a 1-0 lead on a goal by Katrina Smith about 10 minutes into the game. The Matadors generally dominating play early on and that goal stood up until halftime.

“I want shots, not little chippers,” head coach Uwe Balzis said at intermission. “You’re playing like you don’t care.”

Injured forward Kelly Angerosa, sidelined for the title game, tried to fire up her teammates as well, saying, “We are not tired. Be the hero. This is the final 45 minutes of our season.”

The Rams looked much the same at the start of the half, though, as Sandia’s Daniela Moya tacked on two more goals to seemingly put the game out of reach. And with 76 minutes gone of the 90-minute game, nothing had changed. A perfect free kick by Meagan Carpenter ended the shutout with 14:25 left, but it seemed like only a small consolation to most observers.

Not so, said senior Katie White.

“After we scored our first goal, we knew we had momentum,” White said. “It was our game to win.”

Klarissa Ames, who had a number of earlier kicks just miss, scored the second goal with 11:48 left. Then White, who was battling lingering injuries and played the title game with strep throat, set up Elizabeth Hemminger with a perfect kick that was headed in for the tying goal with 3:20 remaining.

Entering overtime, White scratched out some inspirational words of her own: “Leave everything on the field. Care about blood and scrapes later. Run your hearts out.”

And the Lady Rams did for each of the next four 10-minute overtime periods, but neither team could score. The emotions were quite raw during the extra play as

Angerosa screamed continuously from the bench “We are not tired!” The end of overtime, Ames was furious at herself for not winning the game outright.

Sandia’s first attempt by Kimberly Luna hit of the top of the cross bar, giving the Rams an early advantage. Carpenter, Amanda Solwick, Courtney Carpenter and White hit all of their shots, and the final margin was 4-2 in the shootout as goalkeeper Julia Rasmussen also made a save on a kick from Sandia’s Serena Mancha.

A day earlier the Rams played an exhausting and frustrating game against Las Cruces, which they won 1-0 in overtime to make it to the state championship game. That one was exciting and dramatic in a different way, but nothing like the Miracle of Santa Ana.