Socorro’s Faith Lucero tries to get the ball past a Hatch Valley player during the Lady Warriors 7–0 win at home on Tuesday.
Caitie Ihrig | El Defensor Chieftain photos

The Socorro Lady Warriors soccer team (5–2 overall, 2–1 district) had a very successful week as they defeated the Sandia Prep Sundevils 1–0 in overtime on March 18 and the Hatch Valley Bears 7–0 on Tuesday.

“It’s been a long time coming,” head coach Michael Olguin said about their win against Sandia Prep. “We lost to them two times in the state championship, we’ve lost to them in the regular season. We’ve played them five times since I’ve been head coach. We haven’t been able to beat them. It was really nice.”

This is Olguin’s fourth season as head coach and he has brought the Lady Warriors to the state championship twice, 2017 and 2019, where they lost to Sandia Prep both times.

After neither team was able to score in regulation on March 18, Socorro’s Elise Madril got a hold of the ball during overtime and netted the ball for their win.

“That was one of the greatest moments of my life,” she said. “I touched around the last defender and was like, ‘I have to score.’ I told coach Mike to put me as a forward so that Bryanda (Leon) could lob it over to me and she just sent the ball and I was like, ‘I need to get through all these people.’ I touched around about three goals and I just had to get past the goalie and just made it in the bottom right corner.”

Socorro’s Elise Madril kicks the ball past a Hatch Valley player. She scored three goals during the game on Tuesday.

Madril said scoring that goal was like a weight lifted off of her shoulders from all the previous games where they lost against the Lady Sundevils. She then continued to help out her team as she scored three of the Lady Warrior’s seven goals during their win against Hatch Valley.

All three of her goals came in the second half on Tuesday. Leon also had three goals throughout the game as she lobbed the first goal of the game within the first minute past the Hatch Valley goalie.

“The win was a little tricky, but we got it together in the second half,” she said. “Just getting that momentum going can be a little hard.”

Socorro found that momentum as they added six goals in the second half, which started with a shot from Madril outside of the penalty box to the bottom left corner of the net. Leon then added her second goal of the game to the board via a shot to the bottom left side of the net from inside the penalty box on the right side.

Towards the middle of the half, Madril scored two consecutive goals which started with a shot at close range to the bottom right corner. She then netted a free kick a few minutes later tothe top middle of the net.

As time was winding down, Leon scored her final shot of the game to the bottom middle of the net. She took her shot from between the penalty box and the half-field line. Lola Apodaca scored the Lady Warrior’s final goal via a penalty kick to the top right side of the net after she was tripped.

Madrid said high-scoring games are fun for her and her teammates because everyone gets a chance to play.

“These games are always fun where we can really show our individual skill and I can really see how the younger girls are coming up because they get a lot of playing time as well,” she said. “It’s pretty cool that they get to play.” Socorro will host Bosque at 4 p.m. on Thursday and Sandia Prep at 5 p.m. on March 30.

They will close out the regular season against Hatch Valley at 4 p.m. on April 1 in Hatch.

Caitie Ihrig